New South Ferry Subway Station Still Deep Under Water It was one of the subway system's glistening jewels, the modern descendant of a century-old hub greeting New Yorkers at the tip of Lower Manhattan. But on Friday, the South Ferry station was navigable only by flashlight. Sea grass wrapped around a telephone cord, connected to a worker's booth. Wooden boards as long as 15 feet, some still bundled together by black wire, lay scattered across the mezzanine. No one is sure where they came from. Chunks of a concrete wall had floated some 150 feet, through a turnstile, it seemed, around a corner, and down a flight of stairs funneling toward the platform for the No. 1 train. As the Metropolitan Transportation Authority scrambles to get much of its system back to work, there are few dots on the subway map more wounded than this one. Earlier in the week, Joseph J. Lhota, the authority's chairman, said that water was "literally up to the ceiling" at the station, which is connected to the R train station at Whitehall Street. On Friday, 20 to 25 feet of water remained above track level, said Frank Jezycki, the authority's chief infrastructure officer for subways, as he led a small tour. The surface of the pools sloshed about four steps up at the higher of two staircases leading down to the platform. "We don't know what's downstairs yet," Mr. Jezycki said. Upstairs, on the mezzanine level, a mound had formed at the foot of the staircase that begins opposite the Whitehall Ferry Terminal. A blue recycling bin, a Village Voice newspaper box, plastic orange barriers - all were among Hurricane Sandy's deliveries, carried in from the sidewalks and down the station steps. Other relics were more difficult to identify. Amid a wooden beam and jagged hunks of concrete was what appeared to be a piece of fruit. "I think it's a lemon," said Sally Librera, the subway department's vice president for operations support. Beyond the turnstiles, near a staircase, a deli menu was pinned to the ground, sealed soggily in place. A concrete slab with ceramic tiles sat atop another heap: "To Whitehall S," the tiles read in white lettering with a two-way arrow beneath the words. The "t" could not be found. For now, the detritus is of secondary concern. There is still water to be pumped out and, just as critically, equipment to be checked for damage. Mr. Jezycki, with bags under his eyes and a cellphone device in his ear, listed the areas that might be affected: "The signaling system, the electronic systems, the public address systems, the switches, the track way, the ventilation system, the mechanical system." He turned his head from the rubble. "It's system upon system," he said. At the station's "loop track," a stretch used by trains to turn around, workers walked beside the rails, pointing a flashlight below. A trickle echoed along the trail. "It's an extremely dangerous environment," Mr. Jezycki said. The tunnels are dark, the tunnels are wet. They're very slippery. There's fumes everywhere. Much of the damage to the subway system is concentrated in its under-river tunnels, connecting Manhattan to Brooklyn and Queens. Few stations themselves suffered such devastation, Mr. Jezycki. "South Ferry is a terminal station," he said. The train line ends right at a wall, so there's nowhere else for the water to go, just to fill up the station. Besides the wall, its ceramic stripped away at the base of a street-level staircase, a handrail was mangled, unhinged from the stairs and tumbling onto the mezzanine, with branches clinging to its bars. The MetroCard machines were not spared, either. Water had gotten behind the touch-screens, some of which were pocked with pieces of white foam. Mr. Jezycki attributed this to static electricity, squinting as he trained his flashlight on the screens. "It's a state-of-the-art facility," he had said earlier, alluding to the station's extensive renovations, completed in 2009. But while some stations were expected to flicker back to life after power returned to Lower Manhattan this weekend, South Ferry is unlikely to be joining them soon. Mr. Jezycki said many workers, straining to repair this station and other corners of the system, had not been home since Sunday. He was among the fortunate. "I made it home last night," he said. Slept for four hours.