NYC subway station damaged in 9/11 reopens 17 years later

A New York City subway station that had remained closed since it was damaged in the 9/11 attacks was reopened on Saturday following 17 years of disuse.

The New York Times reported that transit officials declared the Cortlandt Street subway stop on New York City’s No. 1 line reopened on Saturday amid a small gathering of riders and Manhattan Transit Authority (MTA) officials.

{mosads}One rider told the Times that reopening the station, which was closed due to a collapsed tunnel caused by falling rubble from the twin towers above, is important to show the city’s resilience in the face of hardship.

“Even though we fell, we were able to get back up,” Andre Collazo, a 64-year-old graphics technician from the Bronx told the Times. “It’s important in the sense that we’re strong, we’re resilient.”

Construction of the new station began in 2015 after the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey handed over control of the site to the MTA after years of the site sitting in ruins.

The area above the station had to be completely cleared before construction could begin, Mitchell Moss at the Rudin Center for Transportation Policy and Management at New York University told the Times. The World Trade Center’s replacement, the One World Trade Center, opened in November of 2015 following several years of construction.

“It’s long overdue,” Moss said. “It was a major challenge to rebuild the subway at the same time you’re rebuilding the site above it.”

The $181.8 million station was renamed “WTC Cortlandt” in honor of the site, and features a mosaic from artist Ann Hamilton that includes words from the Declaration of Independence, according to the Times.

“I wouldn’t have missed this day for the world,” MTA chief Andy Byford told the Times on Saturday.

“This is such a meaningful day, I think, for the city and the country — the fact that finally this station is open and it’s deliberately called World Trade Center.”