Uptown Hudson Tubes

Railway tunnel in the United States

The Uptown Hudson Tubes are a pair of tunnels that carry PATH trains between Manhattan, New York City, to the east and Jersey City, New Jersey, to the west. The tubes originate at a junction of two PATH lines on the New Jersey shore and cross eastward under the Hudson River. On the Manhattan side, the tubes run mostly underneath Christopher Street and Sixth Avenue, making four intermediate stops before terminating at 33rd Street station. The tubes do not enter Uptown Manhattan; the name reflects their location north of the Downtown Hudson Tubes that connect Jersey City and the World Trade Center. Dewitt Clinton Haskin first attempted to construct the Uptown Hudson Tubes in 1873. Work was delayed by five years by a lawsuit, and was further disrupted by an 1880 accident that killed twenty workers. The project was canceled in 1883 due to a lack of money. A British company attempted to complete the tunnels in 1888, but also ran out of money by 1892, by which point the tunnels were nearly half finished. In 1901, a company formed by William Gibbs McAdoo resumed work on the tubes, and by 1907, the tunnels were fully bored. The Uptown Hudson Tubes opened to passenger service in 1908 as part of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (H&M) and were completed by 1910. After the Uptown Hudson Tubes' opening, the H&M proposed extending them northward to Grand Central Terminal, as well as creating a crosstown spur line that would run under Ninth Street in Manhattan. However, neither extension was ultimately constructed. In the 1930s, parts of the tubes under Sixth Avenue were rebuilt due to the construction of the Independent Subway System (IND)'s Sixth Avenue Line. The Uptown Hudson Tubes contained seven original stations; two stations at 19th and 28th streets were later closed and the 33rd Street terminal was rebuilt. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey took over the H&M and the tunnels in 1962, rebranding the H&M as part of the PATH system. The Hoboken–33rd Street and Journal Square–33rd Street services operate through the tubes on weekdays, while the Journal Square–33rd Street (via Hoboken) service operates on weekends, nights, and holidays.

The Uptown Hudson Tubes travel roughly east–west beneath the Hudson River, connecting Manhattan in the east and Jersey City in the west. On the Manhattan side, the tunnels initially run eastward under Morton Street. At Greenwich Street, the tubes curve sharply north for two blocks, then turn sharply east below Christopher Street. The curve, which follows the streets above it, was made to avoid demolishing basements during construction. The first PATH stop in New York is at the Christopher Street station; service continues uptown to the 33rd Street terminal, making intermediate stops at , 14th Street, and 23rd Street. Two stations formerly existed at 19th Street and 28th Street. The ornately designed stations in Manhattan featured straight platforms, each 370 feet (113 m) long and able to accommodate 8 car consists. The stations underneath Sixth Avenue (14th, 19th, 23rd, and 28th streets, and the original 33rd Street Terminal) contain round columns with scrolls and the station name near the ceilings. The exposed steel rings of the tunnel's structure can be seen at Christopher and Ninth streets. On the Jersey City side, the tunnels leave the riverbank approximately parallel to 15th Street and enter a flying junction where trains can turn to Hoboken Terminal to the north or Erie Terminal (now the Newport station) to the south. The junction also allows trains to travel between Hoboken and Newport. Each end of the junction is within one of three double deck concrete caissons. The Uptown Hudson Tubes enter caisson 1 at the eastern end of the junction, which carries trains to Hoboken or Newport on the upper level and trains from Hoboken or Newport on the lower level. Caisson 2 at the northern end carries trains to and from Hoboken, while caisson 3 at the southern end carries trains to and from Newport.

The Uptown Hudson Tubes measure 5500 feet (1676 m), or 5650 feet (1722 m) between shafts. On the Jersey City side, there is a construction shaft at 15th Street, measuring wide. When the tunnels were completed, the construction shaft was converted into a ventilation shaft. Additional ventilation shafts are located in Manhattan at Morton Street; Christopher and Greenwich streets; and Ninth Street and Sixth Avenue. The bench walls contain ducts with wiring. Initial plans called for the 33rd Street station to be constructed as a four track station, with two tracks for terminating trains and two tracks for trains running along an unbuilt northern extension of the line.

Plans for a fixed crossing of the Hudson River date to the 1850s. No action was taken on the proposal until 1873, when engineer Dewitt Clinton Haskin formed the Hudson Tunnel Company to construct a tunnel under the Hudson River. The company was incorporated in New York on May 22 of that year and was incorporated in New Jersey four days later, on May 26; the companies initially had a $7 million capital stock authorization. Haskin intended for the tube to run from 15th Street in Jersey City to Morton Street in Manhattan, a distance of 5400 feet (1646 m). At the time, constructing a tunnel under the mile wide river was considered less expensive than trying to build a bridge over it. An initial attempt to construct the Hudson River tunnel began in November 1874 from the Jersey City side. Work had progressed for only one month when it was stopped by a court injunction submitted by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, who owned the property at the tunnel's New Jersey portal. The construction shaft had been built to a depth of 20 feet (6 m) when work was paused. The plans were also changed to a pair of tunnels 16 feet (5 m) wide by 18 feet (5 m) high. It took six months to retrieve the corpses of the workers. The tunnel's construction was taken over by a new company called the Hudson River Tunnel Company in March 1881. This company drove a shaft on Morton Street in Manhattan and extended the tunnel from the Jersey City side. The construction company was foreclosed upon during 1898, and the bondholders took possession of the tunnel. Unlike the North River Tunnels upstream, which would carry intercity and commuter trains when they opened in 1910, the Morton Street Tunnel was intended to carry only trolleys or rapid transit, which used smaller trains. This, in turn, allowed the Morton Street Tunnel to be smaller and less expensive. The new effort to complete the Uptown Hudson Tubes, led by chief engineer Charles M. Jacobs, employed a different method of tunneling using tubular cast iron plating and a tunneling shield at the excavation site. The large mechanically jacked shield was pushed through the silt at the bottom of the river, and the silt went through the bulkhead of the shield, which faced the portion of the tunnel that had already been dug. Some difficulties arose during the completion of the northern tube. The company had to use dynamite to tunnel through a hard reef on the Manhattan side,

By the end of 1904, the New York and Jersey Railroad Company had received permission from the New York City Board of Rapid Transit Commissioners to build a new subway line through Midtown Manhattan, which would connect with the Uptown Hudson Tubes; the company received the sole rights to operate this line for a duration of 25 years. The Midtown Manhattan line would travel eastward under Christopher Street before turning northeastward under Sixth Avenue, then continue underneath Sixth Avenue to a terminus at 33rd Street. The New York City Board of Aldermen expressed that the line could be extended further north to Central Park in the future. The New York and Jersey Railroad had previously submitted a bid for a Sixth Avenue subway line, but it was refused because Sixth Avenue was a major north–south road. The Rapid Transit Board changed its decision after Sixth Avenue property owners expressed opposition to the rejection. The Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company (H&M) was incorporated in December 1906 to operate a passenger railroad system between New York and New Jersey via the Uptown and Downtown Hudson Tubes. The Downtown Hudson Tubes, located about 1.25 mile (2 km) south of the first pair, had started construction by that point, Digging for the Uptown Hudson Tubes was completed in 1907, after 33 years of intermittent effort; they were celebrated as the first non waterborne link between Manhattan and New Jersey. the Hudson Companies tested its rolling stock on the Second Avenue Elevated, then delivered the trains to the Uptown Hudson Tubes for further testing. The first "official" passenger train, which was also open only to officials and dignitaries, left 19th Street on February 25, 1908, at 3:40 p. m., and arrived at Hoboken Terminal ten minutes later. In the coming years, many businesses moved to Sixth Avenue, along the route of the Uptown Hudson Tubes, while commuters moved to New Jersey to take advantage of the 10 minute commute to Manhattan. The 23rd Street station opened on June 15, 1908. Trains to 23rd Street initially used the eastern tube between 19th and 23rd Streets. H&M officials celebrated the completion of the line to 33rd Street with a luncheon at the Hotel Martinique at Herald Square. By this time, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) had become a viable competitor, with a proposal to connect its Lexington Avenue line to the H&M at three locations: Fulton Street, Astor Place, and Grand Central–42nd Street. The Sixth Avenue portion of the H&M line also competed with the IRT's Sixth Avenue elevated, which extended both north of 33rd Street and south of 9th Street. In 1920, the fare between New Jersey and the uptown branch was raised to 10 cents, while passengers heading to Hudson Terminal paid 6 cents.

The original plans for the Uptown Hudson Tubes called for a terminal at 33rd Street under the Gimbels department store, now Manhattan Mall. During construction, the plan was changed so the 33rd Street station was directly under Sixth Avenue, providing for a future northward extension. There would be two intermediate stops at 39th Street/Sixth Avenue and 42nd Street/Fifth Avenue. The proposed extension to Grand Central soon encountered problems. At Grand Central, the H&M platforms would be directly below the 42nd Street Line's platforms, but above the IRT's Steinway Tunnel that carried the Flushing Line to Queens. However, the IRT had constructed an unauthorized ventilation shaft between the 42nd Street line and the Steinway Tunnel; this would force the H&M to build its station at a very low depth, making it relatively harder for passengers to access the H&M station. As an alternative, the city's Utilities Board proposed connecting the Uptown Hudson Tubes to the Steinway Tunnel. A franchise to extend the Uptown Hudson Tubes to Grand Central was awarded in June 1909, with the expectation that construction would start within six months and that the extension would be operational by January 1911. However, by February 1910, financing had only been secured to complete the 33rd Street terminal, and not for the Grand Central extension. By 1914, the H&M had not started construction of the Grand Central extension, and it requested to delay the start of construction for at least two more months. The Rapid Transit Commissioners had determined that the Ninth Street crosstown spur was unlikely to be built soon, so permission to build the Ninth Street tunnel was denied. By 1920, the H&M had submitted seventeen applications in which they sought to delay construction of the extension to Grand Central; in all seventeen instances, the H&M claimed that it was not an appropriate time to construct the tube. On its seventeenth application, the Rapid Transit Commissioners declined the request for a delay, effectively ending the H&M's right to build an extension to Grand Central. At first, the city intended to take over the portion of the Uptown Hudson Tubes under Sixth Avenue for IND use, then build a pair of new tunnels for the H&M directly underneath it. With the IND committed to building the Sixth Avenue line, and the H&M's 33rd Street terminal located both above and below preexisting railroad tunnels, the IND preferred to acquire the tubes. However, the H&M objected, and negotiations between the city, IND, and H&M continued until 1929. The IND and H&M finally came to an agreement in 1930. The city had decided to build the IND Sixth Avenue Line's local tracks around the pre existing H&M tubes, and add express tracks for the IND underneath the H&M tubes at a later date. However, the city still planned to eventually take over the H&M tracks, convert them to express tracks for the IND line, then build a lower level for the H&M. As part of the construction of the IND line, the H&M's 14th Street and 23rd Street stations had to be rebuilt to provide space for the IND's 14th Street and 23rd Street stations, which would be located at a similar elevation. The 19th Street station was not affected because the IND tracks were located below the H&M tracks at that point. A temporary 29th Street entrance was installed at the 28th Street station. The city paid $800,000 to build the new 33rd Street station and reimbursed H&M another $300,000 for the loss of revenue. The IND line opened in December 1940; it replaced the Sixth Avenue elevated, which was closed in December 1938 and demolished soon after. In 1962, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey took over the H&M's operations, and the H&M system was rebranded as the PATH. In 1961, as part of the Chrystie Street Connection and DeKalb Avenue Junction projects, the city began building a pair of express tracks for the IND Sixth Avenue Line. Although the tracks were located 80 feet (24 m) below ground level, they were directly underneath the portion of the Uptown Hudson Tubes that ran along Sixth Avenue; their ceilings located just 38 feet (12 m) beneath the bottom of the tubes. Service on the Uptown Hudson Tubes was suspended for five days in 1962 when it was discovered that builders constructing the express tunnels had drilled to an "unsafe" margin of 18 feet (5 m) underneath. The express tracks opened in 1967. In 1986, the New Jersey bound platform at 14th Street and both platforms of Christopher Street were closed for three months for renovations.

The Uptown and Downtown Hudson Tubes were declared a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1978 by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Additionally, the coal fired Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Powerhouse, which generated electricity to run the Hudson tube trains, was built in 1906–1908. The powerhouse stopped generating in 1929, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 23, 2001.