Downtown Hudson Tubes

The Downtown Hudson Tubes are a pair of tunnels that carry PATH trains under the Hudson River between New York City and Jersey City in the United States. In lower Manhattan the trains travel to and from the World Trade Center station. In Jersey City the trains stop at the Exchange Place station. The tunnels were the second non-waterborne connection between Manhattan and New Jersey and were completed shortly after the uptown Hudson tubes.

The original tubes were built intermittently between 1874 and 1906. An engineer who worked on the project was Ernest William Moir, who was originally resident engineer, but became contractor’s agent (for S. Pearson & Son) in January 1890, working there until British engineering efforts were suspended in 1891. Regular passenger service began on February 26, 1908. Construction of the downtown tubes began in 1906 and was completed in 1909. They began service at the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad's Hudson Terminal in lower Manhattan starting on July 19, 1909.

When the original World Trade Center was constructed in the 1960s, the Hudson Tubes remained in service as elevated tunnels until 1970, when a new PATH station was built. The downtown and uptown tubes were declared National Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks in 1978 by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Some remnants of the tunnels under the original World Trade Center were removed during 2007 and 2008.