Commuters can once again walk beneath the World Trade Center site in an area that's been closed since 9/11.

Guests ride up from from the opening ceremony for the new World Trade Center West Concourse pedestrian transit connection
Guests ride up from from the opening ceremony for the new World Trade Center West Concourse pedestrian transit connection ( John Moore/Getty Images)
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Police stand in the Brookfield Place Pavilion at west end of the newly-opened World Trade Center West Concourse pedestrian transit connection
Police stand in the Brookfield Place Pavilion at west end of the newly-opened World Trade Center West Concourse pedestrian transit connection (John Moore/Getty Images)
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The 600-foot-long, marble-paved passageway will accommodate mass-transit users going into and out of lower Manhattan.

The concourse will also eventually feature retail outlets.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says the passageway replaces a critical transit connection that was lost in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

The underground passageway runs west from the PATH station and underneath West Street. Pedestrians had been crossing the busy roadway or using a pedestrian bridge that's being dismantled.

The passageway is part of a nearly $4 billion redevelopment of the World Trade Center site that includes a new transportation hub scheduled for completion in 2015.

A ribbon-cutting was held Thursday.

 

(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved)

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