The complex comprises four stations, all named Canal Street; the Broadway Line's local and express tracks stop at separate sets of platforms.

[6]: 21  However, development of what would become the city's first subway line did not start until 1894, when the New York State Legislature passed the Rapid Transit Act.

It called for a subway line from New York City Hall in lower Manhattan to the Upper West Side, where two branches would lead north into the Bronx.

[9][10]: 220  Because engineers had expected to find quicksand near the pond's site, contractors waited to construct the section between Pearl and Canal Streets;[11][12] work on this segment had not even begun by early 1902.

[13] Workers found that the ground was sturdier than expected, consisting of "good, coarse gravel",[10]: 230  and they discovered tree trunks and human bones, as well as artifacts such as coins, silverware, keys, and steel tools.

[19] To address overcrowding, in 1909, the New York Public Service Commission proposed lengthening the platforms at stations along the original IRT subway.

[20]: 168  As part of a modification to the IRT's construction contracts made on January 18, 1910, the company was to lengthen station platforms to accommodate ten-car express and six-car local trains.

[42] In March 1913, the Public Service Commission authorized the BRT to lay tracks, install signals, and operate the loop.

[42][43] The Nassau Street Line platforms opened on August 4, 1913,[44][45] providing service to northern Brooklyn via the Williamsburg Bridge.

The BRT wanted to connect the lines, citing the fact that it would be difficult for passengers to transfer at the Canal Street station or to reroute trains in case of emergency.

[55] The commission was soliciting bids for a tunnel that diverged from the Broadway mainline, extending east under Canal Street to the Manhattan Bridge, by February 1914.

Due to the swampy character of the area, caused by the presence of the former Collect Pond, the commission considered building the line using either the cut-and-cover method or using deep-bore tunneling.

[60] Work on the Manhattan Bridge line proceeded slowly,[61] in part because of the high water table of the area, which required the contractor to pump out millions of gallons of groundwater every day.

[79] The design of the Broadway mainline's station was changed midway through construction when the track connection to the Manhattan Bridge line was added.

[50] In the original plan for the station, the mainline's center tracks were to have continued up Broadway, fed by traffic from Brooklyn and the Montague Street Tunnel.

[83][84] The Manhattan Bridge line station had begun to leak noticeably by April 1918,[85][86] in large part because of the high amount of groundwater in the area.

[102][103] At the end of the month, the Transit Commission requested that the IRT create plans to lengthen the platforms at Canal Street and three other Lexington Avenue Line stations to 480 feet (150 m).

[109] Overcrowding was exacerbated by the fact that the station was the only place where Centre Street Line passengers could transfer to a BRT train to Midtown Manhattan;[110][111] the convoluted layout of staircases and passageways;[112] and the lack of directional signs.

[119] In June 1920, the BRT began requiring passengers to exit the station if they wished to transfer between the Nassau Street and Broadway lines during rush hours.

[120][121] To further alleviate crowding, the Transit Commission requested in mid-1922 that plans be drawn up for a new entrance at the southwest corner of Centre and Walker Streets.

[126] Canarsie Line trains finally began running directly to Brooklyn in 1928,[127] by which the BMT was issuing 38,000 transfers per day at Canal Street during rush hours.

[135] The next April, work began on a $3,509,000 project (equivalent to $36.1 million in 2023) to lengthen platforms at seven of these stations to accommodate ten-car trains.

[136] In the late 1960s, New York City Transit extended both sets of Broadway Line platforms to accommodate ten-car trains.

Some of the funds would be used to renovate nearly one hundred New York City Subway stations,[149][150] including the entire Canal Street complex.

[152][154] The MTA hosted tours of the station during the renovation, selling tickets to members of the public who wished to see the work in detail.

[161] Two elevators at the intersection of Canal and Lafayette Streets make the Lexington Avenue Line station accessible as part of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA).

[172] After a reconfiguration of the Nassau Street Line in 2004, the eastern (former "northbound") platforms were abandoned and the platform-level connection was removed, allowing the former southbound express track to continue south.

The symbols on the red wall plaques mean "money" and "luck" and the "Canal Street" name tablet has characters that read "China" and "Town".

[173] The center tracks, which have never seen revenue service, begin at the unused lower level of City Hall and run north to here, dead-ending at bumper blocks about two-thirds of the way through.

[172] There is a fare control area adjacent to each of the platforms, which in turn contains exit stairways that ascend to the corners of Broadway and Canal Street.