A thirty foot section of the historic ceiling of the 181^st Street 1-train station fell onto the tracks at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday night, halting train traffic for the busy line. The incident snarled travel for commuters Monday morning and afternoon.

At a press conference just before the afternoon rush hour on Mon., Aug. 17 Assembly Member Adriano Espaillat said the landmarked ceiling that fell blocked the tracks, but that no one was in the station at the time. He described a loaded train whose passengers heard the impacts of the plummeting tile work against the roof of a train car. Crews later found some of the rubble on the top of the car.

The station, which dates to the early 1900s, has two pedestrian bridges that allow straphangers to cross to either side of the track. The bridge that is not used anymore is closest to the area where the section of ceiling fell.

Espaillat toured the damage early Monday morning and said that the bricks that were formerly beneath the façade were clearly visible, as was water seeping in between them. He was not allowed back in on Monday afternoon for safety reasons, and the Metropolitan Transit Authority crews are assessing the stability of the entire station as well as clearing the tracks.

The assembly member said he was first told that the repairs would take weeks, but then was told that the station would be reopened in days. In the mean time, 1-train commuters will have to take a free shuttle bus between the 168^th Street Station and the Dyckman Street station and vice versa. On Monday only shuttle service was available along Broadway, however the M3 which runs on St. Nicholas Avenue has also been turned into a free shuttle to ferry people around the damaged station.

The 181^st Street station had received $6 million makeover less than a decade ago. That money went to replacing the four elevators in the station and for power washing the ceiling. No structural work had been done in that renovation.

The Dyckman Street station, long considered the stop in the worst condition, is scheduled to be completely renovated in the coming months.

The Manhattan Times is the bilingual newspaper of Washington Heights and Inwood.