Worth Street

Worth Street was a station on the IRT Lexington Avenue Line. Like the South Ferry Loops, it was originally part of the first subway, opening in 1904. It closed in 1962 due to Brooklyn Bridge City Hall station being too close.

History and operation
It originally opened as part of the first subway, in 1904. Like most local stations on the line, it is just below street level to reduce stair height, so there is no mezzanine, and it has separate fare controls on platform level on each side. The entrance area on the downtown side is out of the usual rounded rectangle shape because of the available space under the street above, but nothing else is unusual, and a tour of the next open stations, Canal St and Spring St, will give a good idea of what Worth St looked like.

The station was lengthened twice. Like all the local stops, it was originally about 200 feet long to accommodate five car trains. The first door of the first car and last door of the last car were left past the platform ends and were not opened. Because of overcrowding, the Public Service Commission ordered the local platforms extended a few yards into the "manholes" at the ends, that is, the space left for access to equipment closets. Completed in 1910, this gave just enough room for six car local trains with only a door of the first and last cars at the platform. The manhole extensions can be best seen at ends of some open stations that have not been fully renovated, including Spring St, Bleecker St, 28 St, and 86 St.

The second lengthening was done in 1948 by the Board of Transportation on the downtown side only. Again more easily seen at open stations like Spring St and Bleecker St, the 1948 work provided for the full length of a ten car train (510 feet). The work was done on one side only to save costs. The downtown side was the main unloading side in the business district so was the side chosen. The tile design does not try to match the original but was done to harmonize with it.

The New York City Transit Authority decided around 1956 to extend all the old IRT platforms to a full ten cars for local and express trains. At Brooklyn Bridge, the island platforms were to be extended northward not only enough to reach full train length but for an additional distance to replace the curved extensions from 1910 at the south end. Stairs from the new north end rise to a new mezzanine level that connects to the immediately adjacent north mezzanine of the Chambers St station. That mezzanine extends all the way to a large street stairway in Foley Square at Pearl St, just one block south of Worth St.

With a good entrance available almost at Worth St, the Brooklyn Bridge station in effect took over the function of Worth St station. When the Brooklyn Bridge station improvements were complete in 1962, it was renamed Brooklyn Bridge--Worth St, and Worth St station closed.