Washington D.C.
an architectural overview
With a 3 hour train ride upon the higher-speed Acela train in the Northeastern Corridor from New York City, we reached Washington D.C. The District of Columbia, designed by architect Pierre L’Enfant The rail system in Washington D.C. was relatively easy to navigate; however, many of the facilities were outdated. The stations and subways cars gave off a vibe that they had not be updated since it’s installation in the early 1980’s. From the faded yellow and orange color scheme to the carpeted floors within the light railcars, the public transit within the District hearkened back to a time before all of us undergraduate students were even born.
The turnstiles here were also a little difficult to navigate. One could purchase either a metrocard or a metropass, and to get through the turnstile you had to insert the metropass into a slot (similar to a slot for credit cards at an ATM or at a gas pump) but for the metrocards you’d have to taps it by a raised, magnetized portion of the turnstile. This made usage of the metrocards significantly easier than in other cities, where you had to swipe through a specific slot, but because there were two different methods for two different fare passes, it become confusing for the first-time user. One of our students got their metrocard stuck in the slot specified for metropasses, halting our journey by a few minutes as they got help from a worker to retrieve their metrocard. Additionally, you had to scan cards not only to enter the stations, but also to exit, a counterintuitive and confusing process.
Photo 1: Inside the metro system of Washington D.C.
Photo 2: The Lincoln Memorial, at night.
Photo 3: A student getting their metrocard stuck in the turnstile.
Photo 4: Washington Monument at night.
Photo 5: Exterior of the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.