The Washington DC Metro system (officially called Metrorail) with five color-coded subway lines, 103 miles of track and 83 stations, is one of the largest public-works projects ever built and is the second busiest rapid transit system in the United States, boasting approximately 727,684 passenger trips per day. The highest ridership for a single day was 1,120,000 riders on January 20, 2009 for the inauguration of Barack Obama. Only the New York City Subway outstrips Metrorail for total number of passenger trips per year.
Design and Planning of the DC Metro System
The first serious proposal for a rapid transit system in the nation’s capitol came in 1959, in which it was suggested that a rail transit system be added as a complement to the massive highway system that was being constructed in DC at the time. The idea, however, was amended by President Kennedy’s appointees to be a stand-alone system that would be a substitute for the highways.
Although construction on the project did not begin until 1969, planning for DC’s rapid transit system began in the early 60’s. In an attempt to avoid the dirt and chaos of the New York City Subway system, planners found themselves drawn to Toronto’s subway system as a model of the cleanliness and brightness of the stations they wanted for Washington. Their plans, however, lacked the architectural drama of the newly constructed Dulles Airport, which President Johnson held up as a model of the style of architecture needed for the project.
The resulting vaulted-ceiling Metro stations, designed by famed Chicago architect Harry Weese, are a true example of late 20th Century modern architecture and make heavy use of exposed concrete and repetitive designs, giving the Metro rider the overall impression of being inside of a giant concrete bee hive.
The design of the rail system is arranged like the wheel of a chariot in which all the trains move along the spokes of the wheel and are connected at the hub (downtown Washington). While some of the stations on the outer spokes are above ground, most of the stations in Downtown Washington are underground. The Forest Glen station on the Red Line, at over 196 feet below the surface, is the deepest station in the system. This is so deep that there are no escalators, just high-speed elevators which take 20 seconds to travel from the station platform to the street. The Wheaton station, also on the Red Line, has the second-longest continuous escalator in the world at 230 feet in length.
Construction of the DC Metro System
In 1968 the WMATA (Washington Metro and Transit Authority) approved plans for a 98-mile regional subway system. Construction began with the groundbreaking on February 9, 1969. The system officially opened on March 27, 1976 with 4.6 miles of track on the Red Line, but the original system was not completed until January 13, 2001 with the opening of the Green Line segment to Branch Avenue. Expansions for the system have continued since the completion of the original system and are continuing with construction on the Silver Line being currently underway.
References:
The Great Society Subway; A History of the Washington Metro, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.
Stephanie Henry - Hi, I'm Stephanie! Some of you may know me by my online alias SSHenry. I've not only worked as a freelance writer since 1991, with ...
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