Monday, January 12, 2015

Into the Depths of the DC Metro

I guess it was in late summer of 2014 that I realized Washington, DC held something very special deep below its surface. Anyone who has lived in DC or spent a decent amount of time here notices pretty quickly that some of the metro stations here tend to be buried pretty deep underground. These extra-subterranean metro stops have particularly long escalators ferrying passengers up to and from the surface. I was particularly aware of these deep escalators since we live near the Rosslyn metro stop (with the fifth longest escalator on the DC metro at 194') and I routinely commuted to DuPont circle (sixth longest escalator at 188'). Once I went to the Woodley Park metro station (which services the National Zoo and has an escalator 204' long) I was convinced that I had found the longest escalator in the WORLD. You can barely see the top of it standing down at the bottom.

But I was wrong.

My amazement at the size of these escalators finally inspired me to do some actual research on measurements. Lucky for me, there is a small community of escalator enthusiasts out there who have documented just about every technical aspect you could imagine of not just the DC metro station escalators, but weird and interesting escalators all over the world. For a nice global survey of escalators, there's this weburbanist post. For more specific info on DC's metro escalators, Greatergreaterwashington.org has a few posts on the length of escalators and an interesting discussion towards the end of this post on why the metro escalators are so deep. There's also, of course, a wikipedia page dedicated to the DC metro stop that hosts the longest escalator - Wheaton.

When I saw that neither Rosslyn, Dupont nor Woodley Park metro stations had the longest escalators in DC, I was shocked. But then, they are competing with not just any old escalator. The longest single-span escalator in DC also happens to be the longest in the entire western hemisphere! It's 230 feet long and, by my calculation, took 2 minutes and 52 seconds to ride up (without walking). When I found this out late in the summer of 2014, I determined to make the trek way out to Maryland, near the end of the red line, to experience this colossal conveyor of people. After all, how often do you get to live in a place that hosts the longest/largest/highest/etc. anything in a whole hemisphere?

I was determined to make it out to Wheaton at some point, even if it meant a 1.5 hour, $7 round trip just to ride the escalator. But fate intervened and gave me an excuse to go out there.

When I was home for the holidays, I was going through my old boyhood closet seeing what I should bring back with me. It's funny how the move-out process stretches on for so long. I think I've got it down to a bookshelf full of books now, though. Anyways, one of the items I found buried back in the closet was my old clarinet from middle school. I opened it up to find all the pieces still there and relatively in tact. It looked like it needed some maintenance but that could be arranged. I've always wanted to play an instrument and, in my adult years, I fiddled around with the piano. But those suckers are hard to move and I certainly don't want to lug one out to Vietnam. Sure, I could get a keyboard, but my level of skill probably doesn't justify the investment. Also, over the break while we were in Austin, we went to a friend's birthday part and lots of local musicians showed up for a birthday jam. Bryn and I and a few other swing-dancers took advantage of the opportunity to dance, but I think the musicians outnumbered us. There were a few clarinetists there (including David Jellema, the birthday boy) and hearing them play just inspired me to get back in-touch with my 14 year old self and start playing the clarinet again.  I packed it in my suitcase and flew back to DC with a new project on my plate.

Back in DC, I started calling music companies to get estimates on clarinet repairs and I was referred to Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center - a musical institution in the mid-Atlantic that has a long, illustrious history. Its original location was in central DC until it burned down during the 1968 riots. Its new location, coincidentally, is about 1/4 of a mile north of the Wheaton metro stop. I was now chasing two Leviathans - one in the world of escalation and the other in music. I set the date for my big adventure for Saturday, January 10, invited my college buddy Joe along for the adventure and we set out that morning to add to our list of off the beaten path Washington, DC destinations.

Of the two, I think the Wheaton escalator won out. Chuck Levin's was cool - we talked to the son of the original owner who gave us a bit of a history lesson on the place - but they wanted waaay too much money to fix my clarinet. I realized that I probably would have shopped around a little more and done some research before making the trek out there; but since I was prepared to make the trip for no other reason than to see the longest single-span escalator in the western hemisphere, it didn't take much of a pretense to get me out there.

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The Escalators at Wheaton: Imagine a clarinet case in my left hand just a few inches further down. 

As far as escalator rides go, the ascent from the Wheaton metro stop was pretty cool. I guess my tolerance for long escalators has been heightened over the past 7 months of riding up and down the Rosslyn and Dupont escalators. When it comes down to it, a 230' escalator ride doesn't feel all that different from a 194' escalator ride. It's the journey that matters, though, and little adventures like this one are what make DC such a cool city to live in.

For those left wondering what the longest single-span escalator in the world is, according to the weburbanist post on the most extreme escalators in the world, Park Pobedy station in Moscow is the winner at 413'. Rest assured that if I ever make it to Moscow, riding that escalator will be on my list of things to do. Interestingly enough, despite the fact that the Park Pobedy escalator is nearly twice as long as the Wheaton escalator, it takes about the same amount of time to get up both of them (about 3 minutes). According to this Washington Post article, the DC metro authority runs its escalators at 90 feet per minute instead of the standard 120 feet per minute for safety reasons. According to my calculations, though, the Wheaton escalator was moving a little slower - about 76 feet per minute - and the Park Pobedy escalator is racing along at about 140 feet per second: twice as long and twice as fast. Man, the Russians are beating us at this, guys. 

In conclusion, as I was talking to the metro attendant at the summit of the Wheaton escalators, she confirmed my suspicion that there is no kind of plaque or acknowledgement of any kind that the escalators there are the longest in the western hemisphere. Considering that just about every other building, statue and section of pavement in this town is commemorated to some person, event or idea, I feel like the escalators at the Wheaton metro stop should be recognized for their distinction, to. I might get the chance to go back out there next month to visit the nearby Costco and maybe I'll bring some aluminum foil, tape and a sharpie to create my own little memorial to DC's longest escalator. 

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Wheaton: The View Down



1 comment:

  1. Having lived in Rosslyn for a while, I too, did this research. I found out that the shortest escalator in the world is in Japan, and since you're relatively close, you should probably check it out.
    http://en.japantravel.com/view/world-s-shortest-escalator

    Zoe

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