The original 1904 New York City Subway reached 145th Street as its northern terminal.
The first IRT route opened on October 27, 1904, running from City Hall in Lower Manhattan to 145th Street in Harlem. It used the newly constructed underground section of the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line and Lexington Avenue route.
The line was soon extended farther north. The extension to 157th Street opened in 1904, followed by additional growth toward the Bronx and Upper Manhattan. Because the subway expanded rapidly, 145th Street was only the initial northern endpoint, not the route’s present-day terminus.
A common mix-up is confusing 145th Street with 242nd Street, the current northern terminus of the 1 train. The 145th Street station remains in service on the 1 train, while the original City Hall terminal closed to regular passenger service in 1945.