The Dead Keep It

December 29, 2010 12:12 PM

The division of post-WWII Berlin reached everywhere in the city, even underground, sealing stations throughout the long decades of the Cold War. They were the first “ghost stations”, which can now be found everywhere: the Paris Metro (previously), Los Angeles, the London Underground, New York City, and the aforementioned Berlin, remaining as entombed time capsules that are passed by millions every day.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul (10 comments total)

For more information about the lines themselves, poke around Wikipedia's page for Unused Subway Designations. There's tons of history there, and in the accompanying section of the template. I spent part of Monday poking around there, and learned a lot about transit history in NYC.
posted by Eideteker at 1:16 PM on December 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh man, I knew there was something under the platform here on 42nd St!

Fans of the movie Jacob's Ladder, don't miss the station.
posted by Eideteker at 1:48 PM on December 29, 2010

MOAR

Gotta love a site that gives you a "Touring" blurb on how to see as much as possible of the abandoned/uncompleted section.
posted by Eideteker at 1:56 PM on December 29, 2010

Don't forget Cincinnati!
posted by Mcable at 1:58 PM on December 29, 2010

... the aforementioned Berlin, remaining as entombed time capsules that are passed by millions every day.

Actually, in the case of Berlin they are used by thousands every day. I watched the video and realized once it got into (former) East Berlin that it was a film of the stations in Berlin I am most familiar with. Just weirdly empty at the time, but they look the same today.
posted by oneirodynia at 4:26 PM on December 29, 2010

Moscow Metro 2
posted by TrialByMedia at 7:41 PM on December 29, 2010

There's at least one in Toronto. (Lower Bay, if you're curious.)
posted by Sys Rq at 9:18 PM on December 29, 2010

Technically, the first abandoned underground railway station would probably have been the terminus for the Beach Pneumatic Transit, which closed in 1873, until the building in which it was housed burned in 1898.
posted by dhartung at 10:09 PM on December 29, 2010

The video of Berlin is interesting because, while those stations were totally unreachable to Westerners at the time, they were subsequently reopened totally unchanged when the city was reunified. Thus, when I watch that video all I see is my daily commute home from work.

...sorry to spoil the mystique.
posted by sixohsix at 9:30 AM on December 30, 2010

Calgary has 2, probably 3, roughed-in subway stations (and a short section of tunnel) under 8th Avenue S downtown.

Here's City Hall. The other two would be under the new 8th Avenue Place building (a station was promised, but I can't verify it exists), and another station I can't remember the location of, which is currently being used as a conference room.

There are plans for 5 underground stations in total, and work will likely begin after 2012, when the west LRT opens and the 7th Avenue tracks approach capacity.
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 5:37 PM on January 4, 2011