This is probably the toughest get in the neighborhood — it’s like Rolling Stones tickets — but totally worth it, as the incoming mayor knows. He is holding his inauguration ceremony there.

THE DESTINATION
The old City Hall station, completed in 1904 and decommissioned in 1945

THE JOURNEY
There’s only one way to visit the station — by getting tickets from the New York Transit Museum. (See below.) But you can see the station for free through the windows of a southbound 6 train after it stops at Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall. The train makes a U-turn and comes back to the station to pick up northbound passengers across the platform. But make sure you listen to the conductor: he will say, “Next stop, Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall” or will order passengers off if the train is going to the yard. And as soon as the train leaves the station, kneel on the bench to look out the windows on the right side and cup your hands around your face to eliminate glare. It goes by quick!

THE DETAILS
These photos are from December 2024; I just never had a chance to load them up (and I lost my notes! Argh). It’s an amazing tour, but it takes work. First you have to join the Transit Museum (worth it if you have young kids especially); then you have to sign up for the newsletter and watch your email for the three times a year when the tickets go on sale. And then — no joke — you have to buy them on the hour. (I set two alarms.) (It took me two years of membership before the timing worked.)

Then you have to complete information about yourself within 48 hours of buying the tickets because they do a background check. Membership is $65 for an individual and $100 for a family. Tour tickets are $50. You can buy as many tickets as your membership allows.

Tours last 90 minutes and begin in City Hall Park with a review of the history of Alfred Beach’s Pneumatic Tube and the development of the city’s first subway system. The tour then heads underground to explore the station — you get there by a train that only tour members can ride. It picks you up after about 20 minutes in the station.

PRO TIPS
There’s a spot in City Hall Park where you can peer through the glass into the old station. See photos below.

Also, you can buy more than one set of tickets. I bought two sets for different dates since I wanted to make sure I could go months later. I ended up gifting a set to a pal! She was thrilled.

THE BACKGROUND
In 1904, the city’s very first subway ride departed from the City Hall station — an elegant one with chandeliers, leaded skylights and structural curves designed by renowned architects George Heins and Christopher LaFarge, featuring innovative tiled ceilings by master artisan Rafael Guastavino.

Though the station is still active as a turnaround for the 6 line, it was decommissioned in 1945.