The BMT Chambers station sits directly beneath the Municipal Building, and in such an occurrence throughout the system, the iron station columns are generally buttressed with extra concrete that is covered with tilework. That downtown wall platform was eliminated when the adjacent IRT Lexington line Brooklyn Bridge station platform was extended. Uptown trains use the eastern center platform and the western track that used to face the destroyed wall platform: now there is a bare-bones, 1960s-era tile wall with station ID. The Chambers Street station consists of two center platforms, a surviving wall platform (on the east side) and a destroyed wall platform on the west side. Other ancient directional signs pointing to the IRT Lex line can be found on platform columns.Īs the stygian depths to the platform are negotiated, falling plaster is noted on the towering station ceiling. Most of the BMT lines are the laggards so far, and have neither. Along selected IND lines, automated voice announcements are made telling people how many minutes there are until a train rumbles in. For a few years now, IND trains (except the #7) as well as the BMT L 14th Street Line, have had trip wires located along the tracks that communicate to platform indicators that tell platform idlers how soon their train can be expected. Formerly, black decal letters were applied to tile walls to direct passengers to track connections, or simply to tell them were the toilets were (functioning ones in subway stations are now rare). New indicators and old play a part in this corridor connection. I’d estimate that these days, you stand an 8 in 10 chance of not being accosted by train personnel or gendarmes for deigning to sightsee in this fashion. For those interested in seeing the long-shuttered, yet picturesque IRT City Hall Station ( seen on this FNY page), you stay on the #6 downtown train as it loops around to the uptown track. The BMT Chambers Street station has an adjacent connection to the IRT Lexington Avenue Line (#4, 5, 6) Brooklyn Bridge station.
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On weekends, this is a line terminal, and sits directly under the NYC Municipal Building - one of the seats of NYC government and services.
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It is a dungeonlike space, with destroyed walls, disgusting mold, and wonderful mosaics and terra cotta plaques that were once beautiful, but have slipped into utter decrepitude. By far, however, the BMT Chambers Street is the most decrepit, not only on its particular line, not only on the old BMT, but most likely in the entire system. I remember I also used the station on the exhilarating day I appeared on Brian Lehrer’s WNYC radio show, then produced in the NYC Municipal Building, on Octo(I was told I had sold 50 ForgottenBooks during their pledge drive that day, and my rank temporarily bulleted into the top 500) and just to treat myself, I got a J train out of the Chambers Street station and went straight to Bushwick (where else?) where I got several photos used on a number of webpages.Ĭhambers Street, like Canal, 14th, 34th and 42nd Streets, has stops on the trunk lines of IRT (1, 2, 3) IND (A, C) and BMT (J, Z) trains. I first visited the Chambers Street BMT station, which serves J and Z trains during the week and is the southern terminal for the J train on weekends, for Forgotten New York in 2003.