Long-awaited transit hub opening in lower Manhattan

(Reuters) - New York raised the curtain on its new $1.4 billion transit station in lower Manhattan on Sunday, a long-awaited connection between the World Trade Center site and the rest of the city more than 13 years after terrorist attacks ravaged the area. The Fulton Center on Broadway between John and Fulton streets, encased in glass and steel, will serve up to 300,000 subway riders a day, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) said in a statement. The project was funded largely through $847 million in grants from a special Congressional appropriation in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that toppled the twin towers of the World Trade Center and destroyed many surrounding structures. “This building stands as a testament to the strength and resilience New York showed on 9/11 and every day since,” said MTA Chairman and Chief Executive Thomas F. Prendergast in the statement. “And it stands as a testament to what smart investments in infrastructure can do to improve a city, a state, and even a nation.” Opening of the transit hub is the latest step in the rebuilding of lower Manhattan. Last week, the first tenants of the new One World Trade Center began moving into the 104-story tower built on the site of the 2001 attacks. And an extension of a New York City subway line to the northern end of lower Manhattan on the far West Side is set to open soon. The Fulton Center will contain nearly 66,000 square feet of retail and commercial space, the MTA said. (Reporting by Kevin Murphy in Kansas City.)