Curvier Than Expected

The subway now known as the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) line, formerly the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, or the Hudson Tubes, or a bunch of other names, has two branches in New Jersey and two in Manhattan. In New Jersey, one heads west to Jersey City and Newark, the other heads north to Hoboken. In Manhattan, the southern branch went to the railroad’s terminal/headquarters building downtown, now the World Trade Center site, and the northern branch goes to Greenwich Village and Chelsea. The Pavonia Avenue / Newport station in Jersey City is the knot where the four branches come together.

Here’s a nice shot of the inside of one of the tunnels, lined with cast-iron segments bolted together, published during the final stages of construction:

The signature of the chief engineer is a nice touch, but what grabbed my eye was the fact that there was a relatively-sharp curve at Greenwich and Christopher Street. Christopher is a wider-than-normal street in Greenwich Village, ending at the river, and has the first station in Manhattan on the northern branch. I’d always assumed that the river tunnel was aligned with Christopher, in which case there’s be no need for any curves there.

It turns out that the tunnel does not go to Christopher, hence the curves. Here’s the West Village in 1911:

That’s a bit difficult to read, so here’s the portion of the map with the railroad tunnel:

The tunnel hits land near Morton Street between piers 41 and 42, not parallel to the street, curves under Morton and then two blocks inland at Greenwich curves north. At Christopher it curves east to follow the street. I’ve ridden it enough that I should have noticed those curves, but I tend to zone out when on a train.

I’m sure there was, at one time, a good reason for this. Given that the tunneling began in the 1870s and was abandoned twice before being completed, that reason may have been outdated by the time this photo was published in 1905.