Lower Manhattan's City Hall Station is one of the most beautiful subway stations ever constructed in New York City, yet it sits completely abandoned. The old IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit) City Hall Station was the very first subway station in NYC. It opened to great fanfare as it allowed people to get from Lower Manhattan all the way uptown in minutes for the first time.
Over time, the next station on the line (Brooklyn Bridge station, only 600ft away) became more popular due to its several transfer opportunities and longer boarding areas. Eventually the ridership at the City Hall station dropped to a mere couple hundred a day, and thus it was closed down and abandoned until 2004, when the New York Transit Museum cleaned it up and offers regular tours inside.
As subway cars got longer in length, the gap between the cars and the platform eliminated any possibility of the station returning to regular service, so it is now only available as a special attraction through the museum. In this short video from local railfan Dj Hammers, see a modern (long) 4 train and 6 train go through the curve of the station.
The NY Transit Museum offers tours of the majestic abandoned City Hall Station, part of the original IRT Lexington Avenue Line opened in 1904. It's a beautiful station, with Guastavino tile, skylights, colored glass tilework, and brass chandeliers. The Rafael Guastavino-designed station is unique in the system for the usage of Romanesque Revival architecture.
