The ghost stations of the New York subway

The New York subway has been open since 1904, through three separate companies that eventually merged, two rounds of platform lengthening, and one and a half World's Fairs. Along the way it accumulated stations nobody needed anymore, platforms built for services that never ran, and at least one station left almost exactly as it was the day it closed.

None of these are visitable on a normal ride. A few are visible for a couple of seconds from a passing train if you know where to look. Line bullets and station names below follow the network behind DailyMetro New York; the current stops are in the New York explorer.

City Hall (1904 to 1945): the first station of all, closed for lengthening it out of existence

This was the ceremonial first stop of the entire system, opened 27 October 1904 on a tight curve south of what is now Brooklyn Bridge, City Hall on the 6. It was built for the mayor's inaugural run, with a vaulted tiled ceiling, brass fixtures and skylights, and it never worked well as an ordinary station: the platform curve was so sharp that trains could not be lengthened to fit it.

By 1945 the city was extending platforms everywhere to run ten-car trains, and City Hall could not be extended without ripping out the loop. It closed on 31 December 1945, with Brooklyn Bridge, City Hall a few hundred feet north taking over. The loop track is still there and still used, so 6 trains occasionally run through the old station empty, which is as close as most riders get to seeing it.

Worth Street and 18th Street: two stops erased by their own neighbors getting longer

Both opened on the same day as City Hall, 27 October 1904, both on the original IRT line now carried by the 6, and both died for the same bureaucratic reason: platform lengthening at the stations next door made them redundant. Worth Street, between Canal Street and Brooklyn Bridge, closed 1 September 1962. 18th Street, between 14th and 23rd Streets, closed 8 November 1948 once new entrances opened at both neighbors.

Neither had anything wrong with them beyond geography: two full-length station boxes, mothballed rather than demolished, sitting a few hundred feet from stops that are still busy every day.

91st Street: the same story, one line over

On the original Broadway, Seventh Avenue line, now the 1, between 96th and 86th Streets, 91st Street opened with the rest of the 1904 system and closed 2 February 1959 for the identical reason as Worth Street: lengthening the platforms at 96th Street put it within easy walking distance.

It is one of the more visible ghost stations from a train window, an unlit platform edge and old signage flashing past between two stops that were never that far apart to begin with.

Myrtle Avenue: closed to make room for the junction that replaced it

On the BMT Fourth Avenue Line, now R territory in Brooklyn, Myrtle Avenue opened 22 June 1915 and closed 1 July 1956, not for lengthening but so the tracks around it could be reconfigured into a flying junction serving DeKalb Avenue. It is the rare closure the MTA can point to as an actual engineering trade, not just tidying.

Court Street: the closed station that became a museum

The IND's Court Street, on the Fulton Street Line now carried in this stretch by the A, opened 9 April 1936 and closed 1 June 1946, a casualty of poor ridership once through service patterns shifted. Instead of sitting derelict, it got a second life: since 1976 the station has housed the New York Transit Museum, and the platforms and mezzanine you can walk through as an exhibit are the actual 1936 station, vintage turnstiles and all.

The stations that were built and never used at all

Some of the strangest spaces underground were never stations in service for a single day. Under the current City Hall stop on the BMT Broadway Line, served today by the R, a lower level with two island platforms was built for express trains that ended up routed over the Manhattan Bridge instead. It has never opened to the public.

In Brooklyn, an upper level at Broadway on the IND Crosstown Line, today the G, has four partially built island platforms from the never-finished IND Second System, the 1920s and 1930s expansion plan that the Depression and then the war quietly killed. And under Manhattan, an upper-level shell at the Second Avenue stop on the 63rd Street tunnel, now served by the Q, sat as unfinished concrete for decades before being absorbed into the station's mezzanine rather than opened as a platform.

South Ferry: a working platform, closed and reopened, mostly for want of one thing

This one is not fully closed, just permanently reduced. The old South Ferry loop station, on what is now the 1, had an inner platform closed 13 February 1977 because it needed specialized rolling stock and short trains to fit the curve. The full loop station itself was retired in 2009 for a new, straight-platform station a short walk away, then that new station flooded during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, forcing the old loop back into temporary service until 2017 while repairs were made. It is a rare case of a ghost station being un-ghosted for five years out of necessity.

Ghost stations and platforms at a glance

For the stations still open but partly abandoned, such as the walled-off platform at Bowery or the disused outer tracks at Hoyt-Schermerhorn Streets, see the weirdest stations of the New York subway. For the network's records and history, see 10 things to know about the New York subway.