Gallery Place–Chinatown (Washington Metro)

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Gallery Place–Chinatown
Station statistics
Address 630 H Street, Northwest
Washington, D.C. 20001
Lines
Red Line
Green Line
Yellow Line
Platforms 2 side platforms (upper level)
1 island platform (lower level)
Tracks 2 upper level, 2 lower level
Other information
Opened December 15, 1976
Accessible Handicapped/disabled access
Code B01 (upper level)
F01 (lower level)
Owned by Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Formerly Gallery Place (1976-1986)
Traffic
Passengers (2006) 7.545 million 6%
Services
Preceding station   Metrorail   Following station
Red Line
toward Glenmont
Green Line
toward Greenbelt
toward Huntington
Yellow Line

Gallery Place–Chinatown is a Washington Metro station in Washington, D.C., on the Green, Red and Yellow Lines. It is a transfer station between the Red Line on the upper level and the other two lines on the lower level.

Gallery Place–Chinatown is located in Northwest, with entrances at 7th and F, 7th and H, and 9th and G Streets. The station's only street elevator is north of F Street on the west side of 7th Street

The station is beneath and serves the Verizon Center and the surrounding Chinatown and Penn Quarter neighborhoods in downtown Washington. The station is located very close to Metro Center, such that the lights of one are visible down the tunnel from the other.

The station was originally named "Gallery Place" after the nearby National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum. In 1986, "Chinatown" was added to the name of the station, and in 2000, a large Chinese-style fan, entitled The Glory of the Chinese Descendants, was installed over the 7th and H Street entrance.[1]

Contents

[edit] Service

Service began on December 15, 1976, as part of the original Red line that ran from Farragut North to Rhode Island Avenue–Brentwood. The opening of the station was delayed by a court order over lack of handicapped access, as it was originally supposed to open with the rest of the first stations on March 27, 1976. WMATA provided assurance that such access would be available by June 1, 1977.

Yellow Line service was added on April 30, 1983, adding service to the Pentagon and National Airport. In 1991, Green line service was added, with service at the time to U Street/African-American Civil War Memorial/Cardozo and Anacostia.

[edit] Improvements

Plans have long been in the works to add a pedestrian tunnel to connect Gallery Place–Chinatown with Metro Center. The most recent major development was the completion of a "Gallery Place/Chinatown - Metro Center Pedestrian Passageway Tunnel Study" in July 2005.[2]

This station is also a testing ground for new features in Metro stations. Since 2004, the station has been the site of testing for new signage. As a result, there is far more signage in this station than most others, including lighted signs, as well as signage that isn't found anywhere else in the system. In 2007, red LEDs are also being tested for the platform edge lights on the upper level. Orange LEDs are being tested at the platform edge on the lower level.

[edit] Gallery

[edit] Notable places nearby

[edit] Bus routes

Metrobus

  • 42
  • 70, 71
  • 79
  • 80
  • P6
  • X2

[edit] References

  1. ^ WMATA Art In Transit
  2. ^ Parsons; KPG Design Studio; Basile Baumann Prost & Associates (2005-07). Gallery Place/Chinatwon - Metro Center Pedestrian Passageway Tunnel Study. WMATA Office of Planning and Project Development. Retrieved on 2008-02-14.

[edit] External links