Downtown Hudson Tubes

Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company
Company type	Private company
Industry	Rail transportation
Predecessor	Hudson Companies
Founded	1906; 120 years ago
Headquarters	New York City, United States
Products	Passenger rail service through Downtown Hudson Tubes

Downtown Hudson Tubes

The Downtown Hudson Tubes, previously known as the Cortlandt Street Tunnel, consist of a pair of tunnels that carry PATH trains underneath the Hudson River. These tunnels provide a transit connection between New York City and Jersey City, New Jersey, linking the World Trade Center station in Manhattan with the Exchange Place station in New Jersey.

Two PATH routes operate through these tubes: the Newark–World Trade Center service, which runs continuously throughout the week, and the Hoboken–World Trade Center service, available only on weekdays.

Description

Extending approximately east-southeast to west-northwest beneath the Hudson River, the Downtown Hudson Tubes connect Manhattan with Jersey City. Each tunnel contains a single track, facilitating improved air circulation via the piston effect: as trains move forward, they push air toward ventilation shafts ahead and draw air in from behind. The tunnels have a diameter of , with an underwater stretch close to in length. Their construction involved segmental cast-steel linings that were bolted behind tunneling shields, with concrete lining applied below cable ducts and no lining above.

At the Manhattan terminus, the tubes feed into a balloon loop expanding into five tracks served by six platforms—a configuration originating from the original Hudson Terminal and preserved through subsequent versions of the World Trade Center PATH stations. The present World Trade Center PATH station maintains this five-track balloon loop structure but operates with four platforms.

History

The Downtown Hudson Tubes were the second fixed transit connection beneath the river between Manhattan and New Jersey, following the earlier Uptown Hudson Tubes. The concept for these downtown tunnels was introduced in 1903 by the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Corporation (H&M). Concurrently, William Gibbs McAdoo's New York and Jersey Railroad Company, responsible for constructing the Uptown Tubes, expressed interest in H&M’s downtown tunnel project. Initial speculation suggested that the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) might run trains through these tubes to alleviate congestion at New York Penn Station, but McAdoo refuted any PRR involvement. In January 1905, the Hudson Companies was established with $21 million capital to complete Uptown Tubes and construct downtown tunnels connecting Jersey City's Exchange Place with Manhattan's Hudson Terminal at Church and Cortlandt Streets.

Work on the underwater segment of the Downtown Tubes commenced in April 1905. By June of that year, New York State approved plans for the Manhattan terminal. The Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Company was formed in December 1906 to operate passenger services through both Uptown and Downtown Tubes. At that point, roughly of the Downtown Tubes had been completed. Construction advanced without major issues; excavation of the first tube concluded in January 1909 without any fatalities. Service began on July 19, 1909, coinciding with the opening of H&M's Hudson Terminal in lower Manhattan. Initially, trains ran only as far as Exchange Place to connect with PRR services; this extended to Hoboken Terminal by August 1909, then reached Grove Street in 1910, and ultimately extended to Park Place in 1911.

During construction of the original World Trade Center complex in the 1960s, these tubes functioned as elevated tunnels until 1970 when a new PATH station replaced Hudson Terminal. The original terminal closed upon opening of this station on July 6, 1971. In 1978, both downtown and uptown tubes were recognized as National Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The final remnant of Hudson Terminal—a cast-iron tube embedded within the original World Trade Center foundation—was removed during redevelopment work in 2008; a portion was donated to the Shore Line Trolley Museum, along with a PATH train car that had been trapped during the collapse of the towers.

On July 7, 2006, authorities uncovered an alleged terrorist plot aimed at attacking PATH’s Downtown Hudson Tubes. The scheme involved detonating explosives to flood Lower Manhattan by compromising tunnel integrity; however, experts noted that structural resilience and logistical complications made such an attack unlikely to succeed. Three out of eight conspirators spread across six countries were apprehended.

The Downtown Hudson Tubes suffered significant harm due to flooding from Hurricane Sandy. To allow for restoration work, Newark–World Trade Center line service between Exchange Place and World Trade Center was suspended on most weekends during 2019 and 2020, excluding holiday periods.

Downtown Hudson Tubes