第1950期:Art, Culture of an Old New York Train Station

The first subway station in New York City was designed to be a masterpiece and was considered a “jewel in the crown” when it opened. The trains in New York City’s public transportation system, its subway, mostly run underground. Today, the main concern of subway designers is that their systems work correctly. New York’s subway opened in 1904. City Hall Station was one of New York City’s first underground subway stations. Now called Old City Hall Station, it was built during a time when many public buildings and spaces were designed to appear majestic. The goal was to demonstrate that New York could compete culturally with great European cities, sometimes called metropolises.

纽约市的第一个地铁站被设计成一件杰作，在开业时被认为是“皇冠上的宝石”。纽约市公共交通系统（地铁）的火车大部分在地下运行。如今，地铁设计者主要关心的是他们的系统能否正常工作。纽约地铁于 1904 年开通。市政厅站是纽约市最早的地下地铁站之一。现在称为旧市政厅站，它是在许多公共建筑和空间被设计得显得雄伟的时代建造的。其目标是证明纽约可以在文化上与欧洲大城市（有时称为大都市）竞争。

“It was a statement that New York City had arrived at the level of the great European metropolises like London and Paris, Rome, Madrid…that New York City was taking its place as a world city,” said Clifton Hood. Hood is a history professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York.Inside Old City Hall Station, the top is not flat in shape but curved instead. The walls rise up to create a high, round shape known as a vault. Square pieces of glass, called tiles, shine. Some of the lights in the station are called chandeliers. These are beautiful hanging lights that hold many individual light bulbs and look like huge pieces of jewelry. Polly Desjarlais is with the New York Transit Museum. She said she was “blown away” when she first saw the old station. She used words like “lovely, elegant and really unique space” to describe the station.

“这表明纽约市已经达到了伦敦、巴黎、罗马、马德里等欧洲大都市的水平……纽约市正在取代世界城市的地位，”克利夫顿·胡德说。胡德是纽约州日内瓦霍巴特学院和威廉史密斯学院的历史学教授。在旧市政厅车站内，顶部不是平坦的，而是弯曲的。墙壁升起，形成一个高而圆形的形状，称为拱顶。方形玻璃片（称为瓷砖）闪闪发光。车站内的一些灯被称为枝形吊灯。这些是美丽的吊灯，上面装有许多单独的灯泡，看起来像巨大的珠宝。Polly Desjarlais 在纽约交通博物馆工作。她说，当她第一次看到这个旧车站时，她“震惊了”。她用“可爱、优雅、非常独特的空间”这样的词来形容这个车站。

“I've heard [the station] be described as a celebration of curves, because there are a lot of curves. Everything is sort-of rounded,” Desjarlais said. But those beautiful curves are why the station is no longer part of the normal subway system. Its rounded platform cannot fit long trains.“The platform at City Hall is really curved. It's a very, very tight curve, and the platform itself is just over 200 feet long. So, it's short,” Desjarlais said. “As the subway got busier…trains got longer, and we added cars…We were growing those platforms and making them longer...”

“我听说[车站]被描述为曲线的庆典，因为有很多曲线。一切都是圆润的，”Desjarlais 说。但这些美丽的曲线就是该车站不再属于正常地铁系统的原因。它的圆形月台无法容纳长火车。“市政厅的月台真的是弯曲的。这是一条非常非常紧的曲线，平台本身只有 200 多英尺长。所以，它很短，”Desjarlais 说。“随着地铁变得更加繁忙……火车变得更长，我们增加了车厢……我们正在扩大这些站台并使它们更长……”

Although it is no longer part of the subway system, Old City Hall Station is still being used. One train line, the No. 6, uses the Old City Hall Station to turn around. And while the public cannot enter the station from the street, the members of the New York Transit Museum can see the station a few times a year at a cost of about $50. Over the years, there have been ideas to make the old station a restaurant or a place for travelers to the city to visit. However, security concerns put those ideas to rest. Today, the unofficial way for the public to see the old station is by taking the No. 6 train and staying on after the last stop. Then, the train turns around at the Old City Hall Station, and riders will be able to see the majestic space.

虽然不再是地铁系统的一部分，但旧市政厅站仍在使用。其中一条火车线路 6 号线在旧市政厅站掉头。虽然公众无法从街道进入车站，但纽约交通博物馆的成员每年可以花费约 50 美元参观车站几次。多年来，一直有想法将旧车站打造成餐厅或供游客前往城市参观的地方。然而，出于安全考虑，这些想法不得不搁置。如今，公众参观旧车站的非官方方式是乘坐 6 号列车并在最后一站停留。然后，火车在旧市政厅站掉头，乘客就可以看到雄伟的空间。