Lower Manhattan's New E Train Entrance Built With Remnants of World Trade Center

FIDI, NY — Thousands of busy commuters will breeze through the new E train entrance in the Chambers Street subway station at Church and Vesey streets without a thought as to the infrastructure. But a wise few may pause in recognition: The entrance contains two surviving remnants of the former World Trade Center.

The concourse to the E train is lined in original, 1970s-era "travertine" marble that survived the devastation of 9/11, and "looks just as it did in the 1970s," according to the New York Times.

A second tribute in the station is more obvious: an original door from the World Train Center, encased in protective glass and still bearing some orange letters and numbers that were spray-painted on during the 9/11 rescue effort.

The marble passageway was closed after the Twin Towers collapsed 15 years ago. It reopened a few years later, the Times reports, as a short-term connection between the subway and PATH rail systems — then closed again for construction.

During construction, some elements of the passageway were reportedly covered in protective plywood for preservation measures. Now, the original 1970s travertine flooring, handrails, overhead signs, steps, ramp and door have been incorporated into the new passageway.

And as for the door:

The notation “MATF 1” is scribbled on it. Below that, “9 13.” The graffiti let rescue and recovery workers know, after the 2001 terrorist attack, that the area had been searched on Sept. 13 by the Massachusetts Task Force 1 Urban Search and Rescue Team, based in Beverly, Mass., and working for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“Our theme is respecting and remembering the past, and including it in a sophisticated way,” Steven Plate, the chief of major capital projects at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, told The Times.

Before the 2001 terror attack, around 10,000 people traveled through this same passageway each day, Plate said.

(Note: The Times refers to passageway as the Chambers Street Stop. But the Tribeca Citizen, a local blog, points out that while the passageway is called the Chambers Street station for riders of the A and C trains, it's called the World Trade Center station for E train riders and Park Place for 2 and 3 train riders.)

>>> Read the full New York Times article here

Lead photo by Patch