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Tunnel only part of original WTC remaining

By David Freedlander | dfreedlander@am-ny.com

March 10, 2008

Not all history has to be stored in a museum.

As the last aboveground remnant of the World Trade Center was hauled away Sunday for safekeeping, a preserved piece of the center's life below the street hummed along as it has for decades.

The stately marble passageway that took PATH commuters to the towers and shopping mall remains in use 6.5 years after the attacks, and despite some rust from leaking water and general wear, has retained its pre 9/11-look. It displays the same subway signs, the same travertine flooring, and even the same doors that opened up the World Trade Center to thousands of people every day.

"People's picture of Ground Zero is of horrendous destruction, but the elements that weren't destroyed, that survived, are an important symbol because people did survive, and just as importantly, the city survived," said Peg Breen, president of the New York Landmarks Conservancy. "When you walk along that corridor, you understand you are walking along a path that millions of people took everyday, some of whom are no longer with us. It gives you pause."

After the attacks, the passageway, along with the now-removed staircase, the slurry wall and the outline of the tower footprints were listed in the state and national register of historic places, Breen said.

The National Historic Preservation Act forces any project using federal funds, such as the rebuilding of Ground Zero, to take into consideration the impact the project will have on historic artifacts.

Today, much of the PATH station is a maze of yellow caution tape and is open to the elements. Port Authority officials, however, say it will become a vital link in the new downtown when it reemerges as the Santiago Calatrava-designed transit hub in 2011.

"It will be a symbol of the rebirth of a critical part of the city," said Stephen Sigmund, director of public affairs for the Port Authority. "It's an enormous priority for us."

Preservationists and survivors initially fought to have the "Survivors' Stairway" kept in the place.

But developers and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which coordinates the rebuilding of Ground Zero and the surrounding area, said that was logistically impossible, given office tower construction.

Many, though, were grateful to at least keep the subterranean passageway to the past.

"The World Trade Center mezzanine and shopping area was always such a lively and bustling area of commerce and commuters and 24-7 use," said Richard Zimbler, president of the World Trade Center Survivors Network. "So the fact that it can return to something like that is very fitting."