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. “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.
