Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall is the original southern terminus of the IRT except for the City Hall loop track for local trains whose decorative curving station in front of City Hall was closed on New Years Eve 1945. The track is still considered revenue service track meaning anyone can legally ride a terminating 6 train around the loop. The automated announcements now say "This is the last downtown stop on this train. The next stop will be Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall on the uptown platform." This station's closing added the City Hall suffix to the current station name. The stop also was referred as Brooklyn Bridge - Worth Street for a while in reference to another abandoned local stop just north of Brooklyn Bridge, closed in 1962 when Brooklyn Bridge's platforms were extended north and the new entrance was opened just a short two blocks south. Brooklyn Bridge has two abandoned platforms in the station itself as well, originally opening with two exit side platforms for local trains that were closed by 1910 and were barely used. These are now fully tiled over and closed off by walls that have modern small text saying City Hall almost forming a trimline and larger Brooklyn Bridge name tablets. There are original walls reliefs in the mezzanine area with two B's (one backward) inside the tunnel beneath the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge that connects to more station exits. The stop is an express stop and now terminus of 6 trains at all times with two island platforms for the four track line and the downtown platform signed for only the 4 and 5 trains.
The station has two major entrance areas that both provide connections to the J,Z Chambers Street Station. There more minor one that was built just two blocks from Worth Street consists of a staircase that goes down from the very end of each platform to a passageway that soon has a small unstaffed fare control area with both low and high turnstiles, and MVMs have replaced where a token booth once was, there is then a staircase up to a more intermediate lading that splits into two for two street stairs at the NW corner of Reade and Lafayette Streets. The narrow passageway continues beyond to a long staircase up to the northern mezzanine of the J/Z station at its exit to Foley Square.
The southern passageway from the J Z trains and Chambers Street station and mezzanine area for the Municipal Building exit leads first to one bridge across with one staircase down to the uptown platform and across to two to the Brooklyn-bound platform, these are towards the middle of the platform. The mezzanine area follows the side of the uptown local track a short ways (with a fence offering glimpses down to the platforms) before reaching a bank of three high turnstiles, and continuing across the platforms with a staircase and platform elevator down to each and ends at the main bank of 24 hour booth turnstiles. The main 24 hour token booth has a small fare control area, and exits with a street elevator whose upper landing is in an enclosure inspired by the first ornate glass kiosks that were the entrances of the original subway. There are also two street stairs inside a plaza on the east side of City Hall Park in front of the Tweed Courthouse along where Centre Street becomes Park Row across from the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge. There is an additional bridge across the platforms that leads first to the 3 high turnstiles mentioned above before a complicated passageway to 3 exits, the first one is right outside the Municipal Building before the underground passageway continues south dipping with staircases down beneath the forming traffic lanes over the Brooklyn Bridge (where there was once an exit directly to the footpath) before coming back up via some underground steps ending with two street stairs on the southern side of the bridge entrance next to Pace University along the south sidewalk along Frankfort Street.
Photos 1: May 14, 2005; 2: June 1, 2007; 3-6: July 30, 2009; 7-10: December 31, 2009; 11-36: September 2, 2011; 37-57: September 25, 2023;
