Start Here or Skip: The District

Just because I'm a researcher at heart and an analyst to boot,  I did  a little bit of recon work on the Metrorail system just to impress people who look me up on their travels, especially since I deliver them to the metro once I serve them a hospitable meal. 

According to many helpful tourism sites, the District of Columbia is 67 square miles in total and is divided into four quadrants:  Northwest, Southwest, Northeast and Southeast.  The quadrants converge upon the U.S. Capitol building, so if one is lost around that area, more than likely a metro stop is nearby.  And for die hard street walking enthusiasts (no pun intended), numbered streets run north and south in the District. Lettered streets run east and west (there are no J, X, Y or Z streets), becoming two-syllable names, and then three-syllable names as you travel farther out from the center. Avenues named for US states run diagonally, often meeting at traffic circles and squares. 

To spice things up, the DC metropolitan area extends even further than most people who have never been here before (like I was) realize.   It encompasses not only the District of Columbia, but seven counties in the State of Maryland (Anne Arundel, Calvert, Charles, Frederick, Howard, Montgomery and Prince George's), five counties in the State of Virginia (Arlington, Fairfax, Loudon, Prince William and Stafford) and six Virginia cities (Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax City, Falls Church, Manassas and Manassas Park).

Downtown DC is really made for traversing on foot, bicycle, Segway, or public transportation.  If you prefer your own car, good luck with the traffic, streets under construction, very friendly and ubiquitous parking meter personnel, and let’s just face it, the most verbally enthusiastic motorists you’ll ever find on this planet.  There is always something going on in the many colorful neighborhoods, museums, gardens, embassies, and even in our government institutions.  There are also lots of things to do when you leave the downtown area.  From the history buff to the shopaholic, the DC metropolitan area is a gem. 

The Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority (WMTA http://www.wmata.com/)

According to the American Public Transportation Association, the WMTA operates the second largest rail transit system in America, at an average of one million commuters daily, 207.9 million commuters per year. (Now try to read that sentence again out loud without hyperventilating.)

Here’s the Top 5 list: 

1. New York – MTA Staten Island Railway @ 6 million riders/day
2. District of Columbia – WMTA – I already told you the average above
3. Chicago – Chicago Transit Authority – @ 624,000 riders/day
4. Boston – Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority – 483,000 riders/day
5. San Francisco – San Francisco Bay Area RTD – 365,000 riders/day

WMTA has 5 subway lines:  Blue, Green, Orange, Red and Yellow, which covers about 106.3 miles of subway and surface rails, retrieving and dropping off commuters at 86 stations.  Car dimensions are 75 feet long by 10 feet, traveling 59 miles per hour at maximum speed, and 33 miles per hour average including stops.  You would be surprised how many people can fit in the cars, especially during rush hour.  Think college and telephone booth.  Btw, there's a Silver line in the works and a Purple Line to go to Dulles airport!

There are 271 elevators in the stations, and 589 escalators in the operating system, one of which is the longest escalator in the Western hemisphere at 230 feet (Wheaton station).  Metro service hours open 5 AM weekdays and 7 AM weekends, and metro closes midnight Sunday – Thursday, 3 AM Friday – Saturday nights.  It was news to me that only Verizon wireless cell phones work in all tunnels and stations; AT&T and Sprint work in some, but all cellular service works on the surface.   

Whew!  That was a mouthful.