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D.C. Underground: Metro lets you see capital with minimal hassle
Sunday, May 06, 2001 By Jerry Haines
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Something is wrong here -- people are smiling.
Usually the morning commuters disembarking at Washington, D.C.'s, Farragut West subway station wear the resigned expressions of Herefords on the loading ramp at Swift & Co. But these riders are smiling, even laughing -- even talking to fellow commuters they've never met before. "Did you hear what he said?" they cry.
So what did who say? Well, as the Metro train operator eased his six sleek cars into the station, he announced over their speaker system, "Farragut West -- have a good day." Now, even "have a good day" is a bit out of character for the businesslike subterranean pilots of the Metro system.
But then this one responded to himself in a girlish falsetto, "You have a good day too, Mr. Train Operator."
It's just the little lift you need if you're going to face another day full of cubicle lint, bleeping telephones and "the program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down" messages. Just a little reminder that somewhere within all the steel and glass and motherboards, there remains an element of humanity.
Although it's among the busiest stations on the system, Farragut West probably doesn't appear on many tourist maps of Washington. Unlike the Smithsonian, Arlington Cemetery or Woodley Park/Zoo stops, there's nothing much here to fill your photo album.
Getting around by Metrorail
Metrorail fares range from $1.10, for short trips during off-peak hours, to $3.25, for a trip from one end to the other during rush hour. Rush-hour fares are in effect from 5:30 to 9:30 a.m. and 3 to 7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Metro offers $5 one-day passes that allow unlimited travel after 9:30 a.m. weekdays and all day on Saturdays and Sundays. They are available at the busier Metro stations, at Safeway and Giant supermarkets and online at www.wmata.com. Metro stations and trains are handicapped-accessible (each station has elevators on all levels). Trains are less frequent on weekends and at other non-rush hours, but even during low usage you shouldn't have to wait more than 15 to 20 minutes. Up to two children 4 years old or younger can ride free with each paying rider.
Handy neighborhood maps are posted near the exits of each station showing local attractions, hotels, churches, etc., but they are a little out of date. For example, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial was dedicated in 1997 but has yet to show up on Metro's maps.
No smoking, eating or drinking is allowed on trains or in stations.
Metro closes down around midnight, except for Fridays and Saturdays, when it closes at 2 a.m.
You can't get to Georgetown by Metro, and if you drive there, you will find parking difficult. You can walk there from Foggy Bottom or Rosslyn, or take the bus from Rosslyn or Farragut West.
There are no public rest rooms in Metro stations, but in case of embarrassing urgency, ask at the kiosk. (Try to look pathetic.)
Most major hotel and motel chains are represented in D.C. and the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. Our recent Internet search showed dozens of options in the $80-$100 per night range for a double in suburbs. Rates in Washington itself run about $50 higher.
Visit www.washington.org.
To me, however, Metro is itself an attraction, and it can show you parts of Washington -- and its humanity -- that you might otherwise miss.
One budget-conscious way to visit Washington is to stay at an inexpensive motel in northern Virginia or Maryland and then take Metro into D.C. If you come from Virginia, the first D.C. stop is Foggy Bottom. Little kids, particularly those of the age for whom "heinies" and "keisters" are the height of comedy, crack up at the name. "Foggy Bottom, Froggy Bottom, Soggy Bottom ..." (Are the serious State Department types at the stop thinking the same thing?)
Alternatively, you may start your trip at Reagan National Airport. (The graceful arch of the elevated track dominated by the airport's new tower makes it look like a Popular Science cover from a 1950s "Visions of the Future" issue, particularly when a northbound train swoops over the George Washington Parkway and glides into the station.)
You will have to make some choices: inbound or outbound; Blue Line or Yellow Line. In all, Washington Metro has five lines, each represented by a color. Just check a system map in the station and chart your trip. The card-operated turnstiles seem formidable at first, but the pleasant person in the kiosk will explain how to buy and use a Metro fare-card, and soon you'll be navigating by train as though it were your own oversized Lionel.
Board the Yellow Line at the airport -- we're going to get you something to eat. In a moment you'll go underground to let off upscale shoppers at Pentagon City and deliver clerks and colonels to the Pentagon itself, then above ground again to cross the Potomac, then back into the earth again.
Transfer to the Green Line at Mt. Vernon Square/UDC. (Transferring can be tricky, as your sense of direction often goes haywire underground. But the stations are full of maps and signs that will show you where you are in relation to where you want to be.) Take the Green Line to the U Street/Cardozo station.
You may wonder, "Was there no closer restaurant? This seems like a lot of work." Ah, but this is also a ceremony. We're going to Ben's Chili Bowl, a local tradition for native Washingtonians, visiting musicians and pilgrims seeking the definitive chili dog. When Bill Cosby comes to town, for example, he has been known to start discussions by demanding, "Where are my half-smokes from Ben's?" The furnishings are spare, but the portions are satisfying, and you can eavesdrop on conversations that will assure you that -- nation's capital or not -- people are the same everywhere.
Next, some sightseeing, but not where you'd expect it. Judiciary Square on the Red Line is a quiet station, perhaps because so many of the people who come to its courthouses and legal offices arrive there instead by limousine, TV satellite truck or paddy wagon. But up the escalator on the north end is the poignant National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial honoring police officers killed in the line of duty. Bronze lions symbolically protect their cubs, and thousands of yellow daffodils commemorate 15,000 slain officers.
Across the street is my nominee for "neatest old building in Washington," the National Building Museum, which was built after the Civil War for the distribution of soldiers' pensions. (In fact, most people know it as "the old pension building.") There must have been a lot of pensions to pay, for its Great Hall is 150 feet high and bigger than a football field. It can accommodate inaugural balls or model airplane flights. Around the hall in the exhibition rooms, you may find tightly focused displays: the architecture of Disney theme parks; tools as art; and design and the American office.
Dupont Circle is on the Red Line, too. Major streets -- Connecticut Avenue, Massachusetts Avenue, New Hampshire Avenue and P Street -- come together here, as do many elements of Washington society. Diplomats and lawyers chat in Italian over the white truffle taglierini at Al Tiramisu; future tycoons crowd tiny third-floor walkups; same-sex sweethearts walk hand-in-hand through the park.
You might be inclined to walk past the Phillips Collection if you're already experiencing art fatigue from the more famous galleries on the Mall.
That would be too bad, because here in the former bedrooms and parlors of Duncan Phillips' Dupont Circle area mansion is a collection of surprising depth. Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party" is the keystone of the permanent collection, and you could spend an hour just appreciating the fruit, flowers, flirting and joie de vivre in this one painting.
Joie de vivre is a commodity sometimes lacking in Washington. That's why you can spot the fellow tourists on the Metro -- they're the ones talking to strangers.
It's not that Washingtonians are unfriendly, but some sort of law seems to have decreed that you are permitted to talk to each other only if you got on the train together. That's why when one morning a stranger told me, "Hey -- nice tie," I thanked him and then said, "You're not from around here, are you." (He was from Oklahoma.) That's why we are so charmed by our favorite operator when, for example, he reminds us during the pre-holiday potluck office party season, "Whatever you do, don't drop that casserole."
Maybe we can blame it on architecture. Metro's underground stations seem less like train stations and more like churches -- fancy new suburban churches from neighborhoods where nobody knows each other yet. They have rounded, honeycombed ceilings softly lighted from below, and their mezzanines seem to float above the tracks. (Maybe someday people will look at them and think, "Oh, how 20th-century.") The few advertisements in the station are regularly spaced, regularly sized posters. There's no graffiti, although efflorescent seepage occasionally mars some walls. New electronic signs indicate the waiting time to the next train.
People talk to each other at Eastern Market, and not just to say, "Pass the salt." This historic covered market on Capitol Hill encourages socialization. Stop to check out the chorizo, linguica, bratwurst or andouille (Is there an ethnic group that doesn't have its own sausage?), and someone will volunteer, "Oh, I had some of that last week. Try it with bean soup." Buy a crab cake breakfast with eggs and buttery grits at the Market Lunch in the northeast corner of the hall, and eat it at the crowded communal table that gives you no choice but to make new friends. Cell phones will ring as they do all over Washington, but the signs that announce sale prices on chitterlings, liver pudding and chicken feet will confirm that you have found the authentic Washington, the one that rarely makes the network news.
And Metro's Orange and Blue Lines will take you there.
There's one more stop to make. About a block north of the Red Line's Farragut North station is St. Matthew Cathedral, seat of the archbishop of Washington. It's a large, lovely place, richly decorated with mosaics. The Four Evangelists watch over the congregation from their respective corners below the great dome (but currently they watch through a large netting installed to protect worshippers during restoration of the ceiling).
Senators and Supreme Court justices attend Mass here; President Kennedy's funeral was held here. In this city, however, where knowing the powerful and having the right connections are everything, people come here to pray, to cry or to light candles. Sometimes you need more help than a lobbyist can give you.
You can use Metro until it's time to leave. The Blue and Yellow Lines will take you to Reagan National, if you came to us by air. (Just don't try schlepping a lot of baggage during rush hour.) The Red Line connects you to Amtrak at Union Station and also (with a 2 1/2-block walk) to the bus terminal near there. Metro doesn't yet extend to Dulles Airport, but plans for a rail link are earnestly being considered.
Metro isn't perfect. It turned 25 in March, and it's showing signs of aging. Occasional computer failures and track problems perversely seem to manifest themselves during rush hour.
Washingtonians love to make complaints about it. Here's mine: I have yet to understand why a country that can put a man on the moon can't build escalators that will work for more than a week at a time.
But for visitors, Metro is still the most hassle-free way to see the things you want to see. The stops for the Capitol, the Supreme Court and the Air and Space Museum are pretty obvious, and you should have no problems finding them. But try some of the non-obvious stops, as well. Perhaps you'll find some charms you might otherwise have missed.
A graduate of Duquesne University School of Law, Jerry Haines is an attorney practicing in Washington, D.C.
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By air: Typical round-trip air fare for Pittsburgh to Washington's Reagan National Airport is about $280 on US Airways (nonstop), Continental or Midway, but check the weekly US Airways Internet specials. Often you can save money by flying into Baltimore-Washington International (BWI), about 30 miles north of Washington, then taking a combination of free shuttle bus and the inexpensive (i.e., $5) MARC commuter train to Washington's Union Station, where you can make an easy transfer to Metrorail. (Taxi fare for an equivalent trip would be about $55.) Using BWI probably would be best for someone planning to stay in the Maryland suburbs north of D.C. But be warned: the MARC commuter train does not run at all on Saturdays or Sundays, and the last train on weeknights is at 8:57.