Bethesda (Washington Metro)

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Washington Metro station
Bethesda

Opened

August 25, 1984

Platform style

Center platform

RTU number

A09

Next station	Metro Lines			Next station
Medical Center		Red		Friendship Heights

Bethesda is a Washington Metro station in Bethesda, Maryland on the Red Line. It is the first station wholly within Montgomery County, Maryland, just after the Red Line leaves the District of Columbia.

The station serves downtown Bethesda, an affluent suburb of Washington, below the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue (Maryland Route 355) and Montgomery Lane. Its escalators empty into a bus depot served by Metrobus, Ride-On, and the Bethesda 8 Trolley, situated one level below the intersection of Wisconsin, Old Georgetown Road (Maryland Route 187), and East-West Highway (Maryland Route 410). It is relatively deep; prior to the opening of the Wheaton station, the Bethesda Metro station had the longest escalator in the Western Hemisphere.

The station's construction has been a major boon to the area, with several office buildings being built on (in the Bethesda Metro Center complex) and around it. The station opened on August 25, 1984 when Red Line service was extended to Grosvenor.

At 9:10 AM on October 27, 2006, 31-year-old Catherine Anne Hier-Majumder was struck and killed by a train, after witnesses saw her step into the path of an oncoming train. Due to this incident, the station was closed, and trains began single-tracking between Medical Center and Friendship Heights. The station reopened and normal service resumed approximately three hours later.^[1]

This station is planned to be one of the Metro stations on the Bi-County Transitway system, formerly known as the Purple Line.