Owned by WMATA Bicycle facilities 8 racks Depth 47 m Tracks 2 | Structure type Underground Disabled access Yes Opened 5 December 1981 Platforms in use 1 | |
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Location 2660 Woodley Road, NWWashington, DC 20008 Address Washington, DC 20008, United States Owner Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Similar Foggy Bottom–GWU station, Hotel Washington, Korean War Veterans, National World War II Memorial, Newseum | ||
Woodley Park (also known as Woodley Park–Zoo / Adams Morgan) is a station on the Red Line of the Washington Metro. Located at 24th Street and Connecticut Avenue Northwest, it serves the neighborhoods of Woodley Park and Adams Morgan in Northwest Washington.
Contents
With a vertical rise of 102 feet, the entrance escalators at Woodley Park are the longest in the District of Columbia and the third longest on the Metrorail system (behind Wheaton and Bethesda). The original escalators entered service when the station opened in 1981. On January 5, 2015, work began to replace the escalators, expected to run through mid-2018.
History
The station opened on December 5, 1981. Its opening coincided with the completion of 2.1 miles (3.4 km) of rail northwest of the Dupont Circle station and the opening of the Cleveland Park and Van Ness–UDC stations.
Originally known as simply "Zoological Park", in 1979 its name was changed to "Woodley Park–Zoo" because neighbors believed that the name was misleading, as the National Zoological Park is located .5-mile (0.80 km) from the station. The Adams Morgan neighborhood lies at the other end of the nearby Duke Ellington Bridge, and "Adams Morgan" was added to the station name in 1999 to reflect this. On November 3, 2011, the station was renamed to "Woodley Park", with "Zoo/Adams Morgan" as a subtitle.
Architecture
It was the first in the system to deviate from the waffle-like coffers found at most underground stations in downtown Washington, instead using a simpler four-coffer arch. The advantage of the four-coffer arch was that it was pre-cast in Winchester, Virginia, and then hauled underground and installed on-site, while the waffle-style arches used in other stations had to be cast in place. This was done as a cost-saving measure.
2004 accident
On November 3, 2004, an out-of-service train rolled backwards into the station and collided with an in-service train. The non-fatal collision injured about 20 people and caused $3.5 million in damages. An investigation determined that the operator of the runaway train was likely asleep.