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The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and its partners have opened the World Trade Center West Concourse, an underground pedestrian link that connects the Port Authority Trans-Hudson Corporation rail station at the World Trade Center site with Brookfield Place Pavilion, formerly known as the World Financial Center.
The concourse restores a pedestrian connection lost in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers and provides an important connection for tens of thousands of daily commuters and tourists.
The 600-foot-long marble-clad corridor, designed by Santiago Calatrava and built by the Port Authority, is the first component of the World Trade Center Transportation Hub to open to the public. The concourse will also feature approximately 350,000 square feet of retail and dining space.
“The World Trade Center will be more than a place to work or visit,” said Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye. “This will also be an unparalleled destination in a premier business location in the heart of a world-class city. This vital connection is another major step toward fulfilling our vision of creating a vibrant, dynamic, and transit-oriented World Trade Center site.”
The World Trade Center West Concourse runs below West Street, with the WTC PATH Station at its east end and Brookfield Place Pavilion and the Battery Park City Ferry Terminal on the west. It replaces the Vesey Street pedestrian bridge, which pedestrians used after 9/11 to cross West Street.
When completed in 2015, the hub will feature an integrated network of underground pedestrian walkways connecting more than 200,000 daily commuters and millions of annual visitors to PATH, ferries, 11 MTA New York City Transit subway lines, and the redeveloped Fulton Street Transit Center.
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Patrick Foye, Port Authority executive director, right, and Bill Baroni, deputy executive director, left, emerge into the Brookfield Place Pavilion from the new World Trade Center West Concourse pedestrian transit connection.
Photo by John Moore/Getty Images | |
