Aquarium station is an underground rapid transit station on the MBTA Blue Line in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is located under State Street at Atlantic Avenue on the eastern edge of Boston's Financial District near Boston Harbor. The station is named for the nearby New England Aquarium. It is adjacent to Long Wharf and near Central Wharf, both used by MBTA ferry routes. The station has two side platforms serving the two tracks of the Blue Line; an arched ceiling runs the length of the platform level. With the platforms below street level, it is the second-deepest station on the MBTA system (after Porter station).
The Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) opened the Atlantic Avenue Elevated on August 22, 1901, with a station at State Street. The BERy opened the East Boston Tunnel under State Street and Long Wharf for streetcars on December 30, 1904. Construction of the intermediate station at Atlantic Avenue under the Elevated was delayed; it opened on April 5, 1906. Unlike other early stations in Boston, which were built with cut-and-cover tunneling, most of Atlantic Avenue station was built as a large barrel vault. The access shaft at the east end of the station was topped with a three-story headhouse, which included a footbridge to the elevated station. Four unusual angled elevators connected the headhouse to the platforms.
In 1924, the Boston Transit Department implemented a long-planned project to convert the tunnel from streetcars to high-floor metro trains, with high platforms added at the station. The Atlantic Avenue Elevated closed in 1938, while the subway station remained open. In 1948, the city began replacing the old headhouse and elevators with a smaller structure and escalators. On January 28, 1949, a welder ignited a grease fire that exploded down an elevator shaft, killing three people and burning numerous others. The station was closed until the completion of the renovations in January 1950. The station was renamed Aquarium in 1967 as part of rebranding by the 1964-formed Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).
The MBTA began construction on a major renovation of the station in 1996. The platforms were lengthened for six-car trains, new entrances were added west of Atlantic Avenue, and the station was made fully accessible. The station was closed from October 14, 2000 to October 29, 2001; major construction was completed in 2003. Since the renovation, the station has had water leakage issues; it also occasionally floods during high tides and storm surges. The proposed North-South Rail Link includes a possible Central Station for MBTA Commuter Rail trains located under Aquarium station.
Station layout
Aquarium station is located under State Street at its intersection with Atlantic Avenue, near the edge of Boston Harbor. The station has two side platforms—each long enough for six-car trains—serving the two tracks of the Blue Line. The platforms are below street level, making it the second-deepest station on the MBTA system after Porter station. The Tip O'Neill Tunnel, which carries Interstate 93, passes over the center of the station and is supported by its roof. The older eastern part of the platform level has an arched ceiling, which widens to a triple vault in the newer western section.
Mezzanines with faregates are located at both ends of the station. The east mezzanine is located on the west end of Long Wharf, near the New England Aquarium. Two glass headhouses—one with escalators and stairs, the other with an elevator—provide access from the surface. The west mezzanine is located under State Street west of Atlantic Avenue, near the Custom House Tower. That mezzanine is accessed by a headhouse—which includes an elevator—on the south side of State Street, as well as a smaller entrance inside a building on the north side of the street.
The station is also served by the MBTA bus route , which runs on Atlantic Avenue at peak hours. Aquarium station is the primary transfer point between the MBTA subway and ferry services on Boston Harbor: MBTA ferry routes terminate at Long Wharf, as do several Boston Harbor Islands ferry routes; MBTA ferry routes terminate at nearby Central Wharf.
History State Street station
Construction of the Atlantic Avenue Elevated began on January 21, 1901. The Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) opened the line on August 22, 1901, including a stop at State Street. Like the other four stations on the line, State Street had a single elevated island platform with a single mezzanine underneath. Passengers entered the station from staircases on either side of Atlantic Avenue north of State Street, and exited on two staircases to the south. The platform was originally three cars—about —long; an extension to allow four-car trains was completed on June 13, 1902.
Atlantic Avenue station On May 5, 1900, the Boston Transit Commission (BTC) began construction on the East Boston Tunnel—a streetcar tunnel between East Boston and downtown Boston under Boston Harbor. Construction started near the eastern terminus in Maverick Square, as the route in downtown Boston was not yet determined. Not until July 25, 1901 did the Commission determine that the Tunnel would run under State Street, with a station at Atlantic Avenue next to busy Long Wharf. The station was constructed in two sections under separate contracts. "Atlantic Chambers", which served as the west end of the underwater portion of the tunnel, was built in an open cut just west of Atlantic Avenue; it housed the elevators and stairways to access the station as well as the ticket booths. The main arched station, to the west of Atlantic Chambers, was built with drifts. The two side platforms were long, wide, and below the surface.
Atlantic Chambers was a rectangular shaft measuring by , divided by three floors into four smaller chambers. The reinforced concrete walls were between thick. At the east end of each platform was a space for elevators and stairs; these two rooms and the trackway between them occupied the lowest chamber. Construction of Atlantic Chambers began on December 5, 1901, and excavation was complete by May 29, 1903. On June 19, 1903, compressed air in the tunnel to the east blew out the bulkhead into Atlantic Chambers, killing two workers. This air pressure had been necessary to keep water from seeping into the tunnel; after the accident, Atlantic Avenue settled slightly above the tunnel. It was necessary to use additional dunnage to limit sagging of the elevated line above; even so, elevated operations were impacted from June 20 to October 7, 1903.
Unlike other early stations in Boston, which were built with cut-and-cover tunneling, most of Atlantic Avenue station was built as a large barrel vault. Drifts were first used to construct the vertical station walls, then the crown of the arch. Transverse sections of the arch were then completed, followed by the invert. The arch was wide and tall; the walls of the station were thick and the arch thick. Work began on this section on March 17, 1902; the last section of arch was completed on June 26, 1903. The rough work of the station vault was completed on August 28, 1903, with the tilework finished on January 19, 1904, and the granolithic platforms on February 10. The Paris Métro train fire in August 1903 led the BTC and BERy to desire emergency exits from stations with only a single headhouse. A pair of curved staircases were built from the western ends of the platform; they joined to form a straight staircase above the arch of the tunnel. The exit stairs were completed on September 6, 1904, with a small building in State Street covering them completed on October 10.
A three-story headhouse, measuring , was built over Atlantic Chambers. The ground floor contained the main entrance and exit for the station. The second floor (of nearly identical plan) served a footbridge to the fare mezzanine of State Street station, while the third floor was a machine room for the elevators. The headhouse was designed by Charles Brigham, who had previously designed the Scollay Square and Adams Square headhouses for the Tremont Street Subway. Shafts leading to the headhouse served as the primarily ventilation for the Boston end of the tunnel. Each platform was served with two elevators, which rose to the ground floor and more to the footbridge level. Because the elevators needed to serve the separated platforms and the narrower headhouse, they were built with an angled section with approximately of vertical travel. The elevators were about apart on the platforms and apart at both headhouse levels; as late as the 1940s, the elevators were unique among subway stations.
The BTC and BERy agreed in November 1903 to include the footbridge. However, the two could not agree on who should pay for the elevators: the BERy maintained they were a fundamental part of the station infrastructure and thus the responsibility of the BTC, while the BTC considered them an operational item and thus the domain of the BERy. In March 1904, they reached an agreement to allow construction of the elevators and headhouse (so as not to delay the station) while deferring the cost question. (The matter was not settled until a Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling in 1913.) The BTC awarded the contract for the headhouse on August 15, 1904, with completion scheduled for December 15; however, manufacture of the steel components was severely delayed. The East Boston Tunnel opened on December 30, 1904, serving streetcars which ran between Court Street downtown and Maverick portal in East Boston, where they joined existing surface lines. The only intermediate stop was at Devonshire; Atlantic Avenue station was not yet complete. Most of the headhouse except for some detail work was completed by July 1905; the elevators were tested in January 1906. Atlantic Avenue station opened in the tunnel on April 5, 1906. The Atlantic Avenue and State Street stations had separate fare gates; a paper transfer was required to change lines.
Modifications
In August 1908, the elevated platform was again expanded southwards, this time to eight-car length—about —to match the length of platforms in the nearly-complete Washington Street Tunnel. An extension of the elevated mezzanine and a second exit stairwell from the elevated platform to the mezzanine opened on October 26, 1908. In 1926, significant repairs were made to the Atlantic Chamber (the headhouse of Atlantic Avenue station).
Platform raising The East Boston Tunnel was originally planned to be operated with high-floor metro rolling stock and connected to the then-planned Cambridge Elevated line. When that plan was dropped in 1903 due to a disagreement between the BTC and the BERy, the stations were built with low platforms. Large bi-loading streetcars (with high floors but capable of loading from low platforms), which incorporated many attributes from metro cars used on the Main Line El, began use in 1905. However, neither these nor the large center-entrance cars introduced in 1917 (which were designed for multiple unit operation) could fully handle the crowds.