Date: 4/15/1969 Road #:
Location: New York, NY more... Builder/Model:  

The pit, as its seen under construction.

Comments:

By: John on 4/18/2014
By 1969 only one of the twin Hudson Terminal buildings remained; the other recently demolished. Note the "Terminal" sign atop the remaining building; a sign reading "Hudson" had surmounted the building that had already been torn down. With the demise of the one building, certain entrances and passageways leading to the concourse from street level were sealed off. They were the original "Twin Towers".

Surrounded by heavy steelwork, we see here one of the exposed cast iron PATH tubes, made visible by the demolition work surrounding the area. tube "F" brought trains into Hudson Terminal; tube "E" was used for traffic headed back to New Jersey. Just as the H&M pioneered the use of air-condioned rapid transit cars in 1958, when PATH opened up the new WTC terminal in 1971, it became the first air-conditioned rapid transit station in the country.

After its closure in July '71, Hudson Terminal, with its echoing concourses, graceful architecture, and rows of brightly-lit shops, fell to the wrecker's ball. In 2001, its modern replacement, the WTC Terminal, was sadly destroyed on 9/11.

I commuted via PATH's Hoboken-WTC Line from 1979 until 2001, and was in the ground level of the Trade Center (at Border's Book Store) when the first plane hit on that fateful morning.

I still cannot fathom how I was fortunate to survive that tragic day. Today, like the first WTC, Hudson Terminal is only a memory.

I am truly fortunate to have an original early PATH-era wooden "Hudson Terminal" platform sign in my collection. It might even be the only one left in existence today.


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