City Hall Subway Station

The Dark Manhattan's version of what (in our home universe) is the abandoned IRT station at City Hall: the area where Nita and Kit find the Eldest and the Book of Night with Moon.

This station started construction in 1900 as a showplace station for New York City's first subway project. It was in service from 1904 to 1945, at which time -- due to declining rider numbers caused by the greater convenience of other nearby stations -- it was closed. Its beautiful arches and tilework have languished for a long time in near-darkness, its skylights still wearing the blackout paint applied to them during World War II.

Though an alert subway rider can still catch a glimpse of the old station while riding the number 6 train through the "turn-around" loop at the end of the line, there are no tours or other ways to see the place except through various online photo collections.

Probably the best of these is at the New York Subway website; though it would also be a mistake to miss City Hall Station's entry at Joseph Brennan's labor-of-love website, Abandoned New York. This site also covers many other lost or strayed parts of New York's rapid transit system. (See also the "Forgotten New York" site here, and (ranging a little further afield) the links page at Modern Ruins. (SYWTBAW)

(See also: Subterranean ecologies: New York urban ecologies: Lexington Avenue local.)