# World Trade Center–Cortlandt

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**Borough:** Manhattan  
**URL:** https://standing-on-history.com/world-trade-center-cortlandt

Destroyed, rebuilt, and still running.

## 1. Before the towers, there was Radio Row.

Before the towers, there was Radio Row, a maze of low-rise shops selling radios, tubes, and parts, credited with launching the electronics distribution business. This very spot was its heart, chosen for the station because the old elevated line stopped here.

**Why it matters:** The neighborhood was cleared in the 1960s to make way for the World Trade Center.

**Source:** "Radio Row." NYPAP, www.nypap.org/preservation-history/radio-row/. Accessed 26 June 2025.

## 2. This station fell with the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.

Just minutes before, crews cleared the platform and sent out the last train—making sure every passenger escaped. Officials feared the tunnels themselves had collapsed under the weight of the debris, yet the infrastructure held long enough to bring everyone home.

**Why it matters:** Seventeen years later, with the memorial plaza and Oculus hub fully in place, the station reopened in 2018 as both a vital transit stop and a symbol of renewal.

**Source:** Kennedy, Randy. "AFTER THE ATTACKS: TRANSIT; Part of Subway Tunnel May Have Collapsed Under Weight of Debris, Officials Fear Share." New York Times, 13 Sept. 2001, p. 13., "Disaster and Failure Studies Repository." NIST, 25 Jan. 2023, www.nist.gov/world-trade-center-investigation/photos-videos-and-simulations, NYCTA-Miller, G CD1-043 - WTC Cortlandt station - Wikipedia.

## 3. Centuries ago, a buried ship lay right where you stand.

In colonial times, Greenwich Street marked the waterfront above today's 1 train, and workers at Dey Street uncovered its hull deep in the old riverbed.

**Why it matters:** The shoreline has since been pushed far into the Hudson — but who knows how much more history remains undiscovered?

**Source:** "Abandoned Stations: Cortlandt St." Columbia.Edu, www.columbia.edu/~brennan/abandoned/cortlandt.html. Accessed 9 June 2025.

## 4. Every wall here is speaking — but are you on the right side to hear its story?

On one platform, Ann Hamilton's Chorus quotes the Declaration of Independence; on the other, it echoes the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

**Why it matters:** When the station reopened in 2018, these words were the first thing riders saw — a quiet declaration that this place belongs to everyone.

**Source:** Young, Michelle. "Cortlandt Street Station at World Trade Center Reopens For First Time Since 9/11." UntappedCities, 8 Sept. 2018.