If you board a number 6 train at Brooklyn Bridge station on the downtown platform, look out the window, shielding your eyes from the fluorescent glare as the train, screeching like a banshee, returns to the uptown platform, you can catch a glimpse of the fabled Old City Hall station.
For years conductors used to sweep the train cars ejecting people trying to take a look, but these days you are allowed to ride the City Hall loop, and if you buy a Transit Museum membership and be lucky enough to score a ticket, you can tour the station in person.
You can gawk at the vaulted ceilings,
see the remnants of tar from WWII blackout on the skylights.
Take in the atmosphere. It’s eery.
The brass chandeliers no longer have beautiful carbon filament lamps (which can be purchased for about $20 a pop), but are almost as dim.
The passing trains produce a deafening noise navigating the roundest piece of track in NYC.
There are more skylights and more tar (they used to be completely covered in it because of wartime considerations.
The lobby does not have the original ticket booth, but there are no turnstiles ether. Your metrocard is no good here.
Things are a little shabby, but the abandoned station is pretty well preserved and restored. It’s truly a pity they don’t use carbon filament bulbs.
The combination of modern trains and the ancient station is unsettling.
It’s freaking magical.
Yep, the protagonist of the novel “From Time To Time” could use for time travel.
And then they bring out a special wooden bridge, and it’s back to modern times.
