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"The Architect of the Capitol, George Stewart, wouldn’t allow a station to be built under the Capitol, requiring it to be moved a few blocks away. The Universit

by aimor 3y ago

"The Architect of the Capitol, George Stewart, wouldn’t allow a station to be built under the Capitol, requiring it to be moved a few blocks away. The University of Maryland rejected a proposed station on campus, forcing “a complicated redesign that later caused commotion in College Park.” The most difficult government agency proved to be the National Park Service. WMATA had originally planned many station entrances in the city’s downtown parks, like Farragut Square, McPherson Square, and the National Mall. A planned station at Farragut Square that would have required moving the statue of David Farragut was rejected, resulting in two separate stations – Farragut North and Farragut West – just a few hundred feet apart." This part is great, answers some questions I've had for a long time. Though there's at least one mystery unanswered: why is the Woodley Park station nearly half a mile from the Zoo?

xg15 3y ago
> The Architect of the Capitol, George Stewart, wouldn’t allow a station to be built under the Capitol, requiring it to be moved a few blocks away. The University of Maryland rejected a proposed station on campus, forcing “a complicated redesign that later caused commotion in College Park. It boggles the mind that those institutions would actively resist having direct access to the subway system. I wonder if this is a hint to how deeply rooted car-centric sentiment is in the US.
- midoridensha 3y ago
  I believe so. Just look at how much resistance there is to anything non-car in other parts of the country, like in Culvert City CA where they removed cycling lanes. Also, Portland OR where the local government is trying hard to make biking more dangerous by putting the bike lane between parked cars and fast-moving traffic, all because some hotel and business owners want street parking to be more convenient. Even today in DC, there's still no convenient public transit access for wealthy Georgetown, because they resisted building a station there. M Street is horribly crowded with both cars and pedestrians.
  - sp527 3y ago
    > like in Culvert City CA where they removed cycling lanes That's likely unrelated to anti-car sentiment and more so because bicyclists are (on average) complete assholes on the road, since there is no accountability for their behavior. I'd be fine with bicyclists if we could use cameras/facial recognition to issue fines and arrest warrants, thereby finally domesticating them.
    - midasuni 3y ago
      What’s the annual death rate of incidents caused by cyclists. And the rate by incidents caused by car drivers?
    - DonHopkins 3y ago
      What causes so much danger and suffering and pollution and death are the vengeful sociopathic un-empathic car drivers who combatively view bicyclists as "complete assholes", and go around posting their ignorant, asinine, toxic opinions on social media to justify injuring and killing so many of them, and voting for ill-conceived, short-sighted legislation that makes it so dangerous and impossible to ride bikes safely, instead of providing safe, clean, green bike infrastructure and public transit, all because of their violent, childish misconceptions and greedy, narcissistic, bullying laziness, plus their complete lack of care and empathy for their fellow human beings and the environment. Medice sp527, cura te ipsum, because your own recent post applies perfectly to you: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37671630 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37671630 >sp527 1 day ago | parent | context | flag | favorite | on: Rethinking the Luddites >> 'Some with sociopathy may not realize that what they’re doing is wrong while others may simply not care. And sometimes, Dr. Coulter says, it can be both. >“There’s just a total lack of empathy or recognizing that what they’ve done has hurt someone or it’s only benefited themselves,” he says. “And sometimes they might recognize what they’re doing is wrong, they just don’t care or they justify it to themselves.”' > https://health.clevelandclinic.org/sociopath-personality-disorder/ https://health.clevelandclinic.org/sociopath-personality-dis... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physician,_heal_thyself https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physician,_heal_thyself "Like an unskilled doctor, fallen ill, you lose heart and cannot discover by which remedies to cure your own disease."
- yongjik 3y ago
  If it makes you feel better(?)... The National Assembly (= Capitol) Station of Seoul's line 9 also almost got moved to a different corner due to the lawmakers' demand, and Seoul isn't exactly known for its car culture. I guess politicians being asshats are universal. Amusingly, the Seoul Metropolitan Council (which would correspond to a US State Congress/Senate) said fuck you, it's getting built in the place, so that's how the station kept its place.
- crooked-v 3y ago
  For this case I would assume it's the security concerns that go with a publicly-accessible subway line directly under the building.
  - bobthepanda 3y ago
    This was in the ‘60s when there were significantly less security issues. There’s still a fairly large train station complex underneath the World Trade Center.
  - mixmastamyk 3y ago
    Probably not in 1960—Russian nukes would come from the sky. Also the Capitol already has a few tunnels underground.
  - ta1243 3y ago
    Cities like London and Madrid actually have had bombs on trains. It's not a "security threat" to buildings above. What is a security threat to infrastructure are roads, where you can drive massive vehicles into people, transport and explode bombs, etc. The Manchester bombing for example was a truck exploding parked on a public road.
  - cowsandmilk 3y ago
    If it was security, those concerns certainly weren’t shared at the Pentagon where the Metro entrance and exit were into the building for decades.
- palmfacehn 3y ago
  Car-centric is a bit of a stretch. Capitol Hill politicians have their own subway system and other underground spaces. The Metro stop is directly behind the Cannon House Office Building. Lobbyists send documents and gifts by bicycle courier. Biden famously commuted in from Delaware by Amtrak. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Capitol_subway_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Capitol_subway_s... https://www.washingtontunnels.com/capitol-hill-map https://www.washingtontunnels.com/capitol-hill-map >Biden made Amtrak trips between Washington and his home in Delaware on most days as a senator when Congress was in session so he could help raise his sons. The Amtrak round trip is actually 220 miles or 354 kilometers, not over 260 miles (418 km) as he described it. https://apnews.com/article/ap-fact-check-biden-amtrak-e79af0cd7015ea3d559609817cceb144 https://apnews.com/article/ap-fact-check-biden-amtrak-e79af0...
- CPLX 3y ago
  Racism is very deeply embedded in these discussions. There’s a school of thought that sees subways as a conveyor belt of undesirable people into a neighborhood that bring crime and “problems”. As ridiculous as it sounds the phenomenon is very real.

by aimor 3y ago

xg15 3y ago

> The Architect of the Capitol, George Stewart, wouldn’t allow a station to be built under the Capitol, requiring it to be moved a few blocks away. The University of Maryland rejected a proposed station on campus, forcing “a complicated redesign that later caused commotion in College Park. It boggles the mind that those institutions would actively resist having direct access to the subway system. I wonder if this is a hint to how deeply rooted car-centric sentiment is in the US.

midoridensha 3y ago
I believe so. Just look at how much resistance there is to anything non-car in other parts of the country, like in Culvert City CA where they removed cycling lanes. Also, Portland OR where the local government is trying hard to make biking more dangerous by putting the bike lane between parked cars and fast-moving traffic, all because some hotel and business owners want street parking to be more convenient. Even today in DC, there's still no convenient public transit access for wealthy Georgetown, because they resisted building a station there. M Street is horribly crowded with both cars and pedestrians.
- sp527 3y ago
  > like in Culvert City CA where they removed cycling lanes That's likely unrelated to anti-car sentiment and more so because bicyclists are (on average) complete assholes on the road, since there is no accountability for their behavior. I'd be fine with bicyclists if we could use cameras/facial recognition to issue fines and arrest warrants, thereby finally domesticating them.
  - midasuni 3y ago
    What’s the annual death rate of incidents caused by cyclists. And the rate by incidents caused by car drivers?
  - DonHopkins 3y ago
    What causes so much danger and suffering and pollution and death are the vengeful sociopathic un-empathic car drivers who combatively view bicyclists as "complete assholes", and go around posting their ignorant, asinine, toxic opinions on social media to justify injuring and killing so many of them, and voting for ill-conceived, short-sighted legislation that makes it so dangerous and impossible to ride bikes safely, instead of providing safe, clean, green bike infrastructure and public transit, all because of their violent, childish misconceptions and greedy, narcissistic, bullying laziness, plus their complete lack of care and empathy for their fellow human beings and the environment. Medice sp527, cura te ipsum, because your own recent post applies perfectly to you: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37671630 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37671630 >sp527 1 day ago | parent | context | flag | favorite | on: Rethinking the Luddites >> 'Some with sociopathy may not realize that what they’re doing is wrong while others may simply not care. And sometimes, Dr. Coulter says, it can be both. >“There’s just a total lack of empathy or recognizing that what they’ve done has hurt someone or it’s only benefited themselves,” he says. “And sometimes they might recognize what they’re doing is wrong, they just don’t care or they justify it to themselves.”' > https://health.clevelandclinic.org/sociopath-personality-disorder/ https://health.clevelandclinic.org/sociopath-personality-dis... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physician,_heal_thyself https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physician,_heal_thyself "Like an unskilled doctor, fallen ill, you lose heart and cannot discover by which remedies to cure your own disease."
yongjik 3y ago
If it makes you feel better(?)... The National Assembly (= Capitol) Station of Seoul's line 9 also almost got moved to a different corner due to the lawmakers' demand, and Seoul isn't exactly known for its car culture. I guess politicians being asshats are universal. Amusingly, the Seoul Metropolitan Council (which would correspond to a US State Congress/Senate) said fuck you, it's getting built in the place, so that's how the station kept its place.
crooked-v 3y ago
For this case I would assume it's the security concerns that go with a publicly-accessible subway line directly under the building.
- bobthepanda 3y ago
  This was in the ‘60s when there were significantly less security issues. There’s still a fairly large train station complex underneath the World Trade Center.
- mixmastamyk 3y ago
  Probably not in 1960—Russian nukes would come from the sky. Also the Capitol already has a few tunnels underground.
- ta1243 3y ago
  Cities like London and Madrid actually have had bombs on trains. It's not a "security threat" to buildings above. What is a security threat to infrastructure are roads, where you can drive massive vehicles into people, transport and explode bombs, etc. The Manchester bombing for example was a truck exploding parked on a public road.
- cowsandmilk 3y ago
  If it was security, those concerns certainly weren’t shared at the Pentagon where the Metro entrance and exit were into the building for decades.
palmfacehn 3y ago
Car-centric is a bit of a stretch. Capitol Hill politicians have their own subway system and other underground spaces. The Metro stop is directly behind the Cannon House Office Building. Lobbyists send documents and gifts by bicycle courier. Biden famously commuted in from Delaware by Amtrak. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Capitol_subway_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Capitol_subway_s... https://www.washingtontunnels.com/capitol-hill-map https://www.washingtontunnels.com/capitol-hill-map >Biden made Amtrak trips between Washington and his home in Delaware on most days as a senator when Congress was in session so he could help raise his sons. The Amtrak round trip is actually 220 miles or 354 kilometers, not over 260 miles (418 km) as he described it. https://apnews.com/article/ap-fact-check-biden-amtrak-e79af0cd7015ea3d559609817cceb144 https://apnews.com/article/ap-fact-check-biden-amtrak-e79af0...
CPLX 3y ago
Racism is very deeply embedded in these discussions. There’s a school of thought that sees subways as a conveyor belt of undesirable people into a neighborhood that bring crime and “problems”. As ridiculous as it sounds the phenomenon is very real.