The Uptown Hudson Tubes are a pair of tunnels that carry PATH trains between Manhattan, New York City, to the east and Hoboken, New Jersey, to the west. The tubes originate at a junction of two PATH lines on the New Jersey shore and cross eastward under the Hudson River. On the Manhattan side, the tubes run mostly underneath Christopher Street and Sixth Avenue, making four intermediate stops before terminating at 33rd Street station. The tubes do not enter Uptown Manhattan; the name reflects their location north of the Downtown Hudson Tubes that connect Jersey City and the World Trade Center.
Dewitt Clinton Haskin first attempted to construct the Uptown Hudson Tubes in 1873. Work was delayed by five years by a lawsuit, and was further disrupted by an 1880 accident that killed twenty workers. The project was canceled in 1883 due to a lack of money. A British company attempted to complete the tunnels in 1888, but also ran out of money by 1892, by which point the tunnels were nearly half-finished. In 1901, a company formed by William Gibbs McAdoo resumed work on the tubes, and by 1907, the tunnels were fully bored. The Uptown Hudson Tubes opened to passenger service in 1908 as part of the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (H&M) and were completed by 1910.
After the Uptown Hudson Tubes' opening, the H&M proposed extending them northward to Grand Central Terminal, as well as creating a crosstown spur line that would run under Ninth Street in Manhattan. However, neither extension was ultimately constructed. In the 1930s, parts of the tubes under Sixth Avenue were rebuilt due to the construction of the Independent Subway System (IND)'s Sixth Avenue Line. The Uptown Hudson Tubes contained seven original stations; two stations at 19th and 28th streets were later closed and the 33rd Street terminal was rebuilt. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey took over the H&M and the tunnels in 1962, rebranding the H&M as part of the PATH system. The Hoboken–33rd Street and Journal Square–33rd Street services operate through the tubes on weekdays, while the Journal Square–33rd Street (via Hoboken) service operates on weekends, nights, and holidays.
Description
Route The Uptown Hudson Tubes travel roughly east–west beneath the Hudson River, connecting Manhattan in the east and Hoboken and Jersey City in the west.
On the Manhattan side, the tunnels initially run eastward under Morton Street. At Greenwich Street, the tubes curve sharply north for two blocks, then turn sharply east below Christopher Street. The curve, which follows the streets above it, was made to avoid demolishing basements during construction.
The tubes do not enter Upper Manhattan; their name reflects their location north of the Downtown Hudson Tubes that connect Jersey City and the World Trade Center. As well, they were built when today's Midtown Manhattan was considered "uptown" and the true northernmost reaches of the island were not as densely developed. The name "Uptown Hudson Tubes" also applies to the section of the subway under Christopher Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan.
The first PATH stop in New York is at the Christopher Street station; service continues uptown to the 33rd Street terminal, making intermediate stops at 9th, 14th and 23rd streets. Two stations formerly existed at 19th and 28th streets. The ornately designed stations in Manhattan featured straight platforms, each long and able to accommodate 8-car consists. The stations underneath Sixth Avenue (14th, 19th, 23rd, and 28th streets, and the original 33rd Street Terminal) contain round columns with scrolls and the station name near the ceilings. The exposed steel rings of the tunnel's structure can be seen at Christopher and 9th streets.
On the Jersey City side, the tunnels leave the riverbank approximately parallel to 15th Street and enter a flying junction where trains can turn to Hoboken Terminal to the north or Erie Terminal (now the Newport station) to the south. The junction also allows trains to travel between Hoboken and Newport. Each end of the junction is within one of three double-deck concrete caissons. The Uptown Hudson Tubes enter caisson 1 at the eastern end of the junction, which carries trains to Hoboken or Newport on the upper level and trains from Hoboken or Newport on the lower level. Caisson 2 at the northern end carries trains to and from Hoboken, while caisson 3 at the southern end carries trains to and from Newport.
Dimensions The Uptown Hudson Tubes measure , or between shafts. The tubes descend as far as below mean river level. In both the uptown and downtown tubes, each track is located in its own tunnel. When a train passes through the tunnel, it pushes out the air in front of it towards the closest ventilation shaft. At the same time, it pulls air into the rail tunnel from the closest ventilation shaft behind it. This enables the piston effect, which results in better ventilation. On the Jersey City side, there is a construction shaft at 15th Street, measuring wide. When the tunnels were completed, the construction shaft was converted into a ventilation shaft. Additional ventilation shafts are located in Manhattan at Morton Street; Christopher and Greenwich streets; and Ninth Street and Sixth Avenue.
The diameter of the Uptown Tubes' southern tunnel is , while the more northerly tunnel is slightly larger with a diameter of , because that tube had been constructed first. The tunnels are composed of built-up concentric steel rings measuring wide. On one side of each tube is a concrete bench wall, which measures high above the track bed. The bench walls contain ducts with wiring.
At Sixth Avenue and Christopher Street, the tunnels enter an arched cavern measuring wide, then curve north under Sixth Avenue. The cavern was built to accommodate a junction with a never-built spur extending eastward under Ninth Street. Shield tunneling was used only between the Uptown Hudson Tubes' western end in Jersey City and 12th Street in Manhattan. North of 12th Street, the circular tubes become two rectangular tunnels, which measure high by wide and carry one track each. Initial plans called for the 33rd Street station to be constructed as a four-track station, with two tracks for terminating trains and two tracks for trains running along an unbuilt northern extension of the line. As built, the 33rd Street station contained three tracks.
Service PATH operates two services through the Uptown Tubes on weekdays: Hoboken–33rd Street and Journal Square–33rd Street. On late nights, weekends, and holidays, they are combined into the Journal Square–33rd Street (via Hoboken) service.
Construction Haskin attempt Plans for a fixed crossing of the Hudson River date to the 1850s. No action was taken on the proposal until 1873, when engineer Dewitt Clinton Haskin formed the Hudson Tunnel Company to construct a tunnel under the Hudson River. The company was incorporated in New York on May 22 of that year and was incorporated in New Jersey four days later, on May 26; the companies initially had a $7 million capital stock authorization. Haskin intended for the tube to run from 15th Street in Jersey City to Morton Street in Manhattan, a distance of . At the time, constructing a tunnel under the mile-wide river was considered less expensive than trying to build a bridge over it. Trenor W. Park was hired as the president of the new company. Haskin subsequently sought $10 million in funding to pay for the tunnel.
An initial attempt to construct the Hudson River tunnel began in November 1874 from the Jersey City side. Had this original tunnel effort been completed, it would have been long and consisted of a single tube wide by high. Trains from five railroad companies on the New Jersey side would have been hauled by special steam locomotives that would be able to emit very little steam. The engines would have continued through the tube to Manhattan, terminating at a railroad hub in Washington Square Park. This tunnel project was known as the Morton Street Tunnel. Work had progressed for only one month when it was stopped by a court injunction submitted by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, who owned the property at the tunnel's New Jersey portal. The construction shaft had been built to a depth of when work was paused. As a result of the lawsuit, work on the tunnel was delayed until September 1879, when the judge ruled in favor of the builders and the injunction was dissolved. The plans were also changed to a pair of tunnels wide by high.
The construction method used at the time did not employ a tunneling shield; rather, air compressors maintained pressure against the water-laden silt that was being tunneled through. Haskin believed the river silt was strong enough to maintain the tunnel's form—with the help of compressed air—until a brick lining could be constructed. Haskin's plan was to excavate the tunnel, then fill it with compressed air to expel the water and to hold the iron plate lining in place. However, the amount of pressure needed to hold back the water at the bottom of the tube was much greater than the pressure needed to hold back the water at the top. On July 21, 1880, an overpressure blowout at the tube's top caused an accident that resulted in an air lock jam, trapping several workers and killing 20. It took six months to retrieve the corpses of the workers. A memorial for one of the workers killed was later erected in Jersey City.
The tunnel's construction was taken over by a new company called the Hudson River Tunnel Company in March 1881. This company drove a shaft on Morton Street in Manhattan and extended the tunnel from the Jersey City side. The liabilities incurred as a result of the 1880 accident halted tunneling work on November 5, 1882, due to insufficient funds. At that time, water was allowed to fill the unfinished tunnel. On March 20, 1883, the air compressors were turned back on and the tunnel was drained with the resumption of work. This continued for the next four months until July 20, 1883, when it was stopped once again due to a lack of funds. By that time, about of the northern tube and about of the southern tube had been constructed.
British attempt In 1888, an unnamed British company attempted to finish the Morton Street Tunnel; it employed James Henry Greathead as a consulting engineer and S. Pearson & Son as principal contractors. S. Pearson & Son subsequently acquired the project's construction contract from Haskin's company. The unnamed British company advertised bonds in England in 1889 to raise money for construction. Following another blowout in 1890, the company turned to shield tunneling. The firm used a new device developed by Greathead, a pneumatic shield called the "Greathead Shield", to extend the tunnel by . With a concentration of rock directly underneath the clay riverbed, the tube was aligned to pass directly above it, with very little clearance. To maintain sufficient air pressure inside, S. Pearson & Son decided to place a silt layer of at least above the tube. The silt layer was then removed after the tubes were finished, allowing each tube to maintain its own air pressure.
S. Pearson & Son were unable to finish the tubes because they had also run out of funds by 1891. Work stopped completely in 1892 after the company had completed another of digging. By this point, the pair of tubes had been dug from both sides of the river. The northern tube extended from the New Jersey shore and from the New York shore, with a gap of between the two ends of the tube. The southern tube had only been excavated from the New Jersey shore and from the New York shore. The construction company was foreclosed upon during 1898, and the bondholders took possession of the tunnel.
McAdoo attempt