The Georgetown Metropolitan

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• The bizarre egging spree continues.
• The incredibly unpleasant norovirus is roiling GU’s campus.

Large planks from the trunks will be used to reconstruct several of the iconic bridges that hop scotch back and forth over the park’s brook. One of the bridges is the Clapper Falls bridge, seen in this vintage photo:

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Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• What Covid policies GU students need to follow.
• Interesting survey seeking people’s experiences taking transit to or from Georgetown. Let them know your thoughts!

This Friday night Wisconsin Ave. may be a bit more lively than normal: Art All Night is coming to Georgetown.

This event, which has taken place in other neighborhoods in DC for ten years, is meant to highlight the small shops up and down the street. More than 20 of them staying open later and offering a variety of special promotions. Some of the locations will hold special performances, like at the National Conservancy for the Dramatic Arts (in the Lutheran church) and the African Union, which will host African vendors and music throughout the evening.

Stop by tables at Book Hill and the Chase Bank to pick up a guidebook. Stop by at least 8 shops and get your ticket punched, and you will be entered into a raffle to win the following prizes:

• Gift card from Martin’s Tavern
• Gift card from Dog Tag Bakery
• Gift Card from The Phoenix
• Gift Card from Bacchus Wine Cellar
• One of a Kind Print from Washington Printmakers Gallery
• Kerastase Luxury Hair Care Box from ILO Salon
• Cashmere hat, gloves, and scarf from T&U Cashmere
• Two Art Books (great for coffee tables) from The Lantern Book Shop

Should be a great time!

Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• Live theater returns to GU.
• This is the final week for Georgetown Glow, so check it out before it leaves…

You may have heard the buzz recently that WMATA has put out plans that would finally include the construction of a Georgetown metro stop. Long time readers, however, will know that this is not the first time WMATA has put out such plans. GM’s been writing about such missives for over ten years now. And the new plans don’t really vary a whole lot from other plans that have been put out over the years. But an inch forward is still an inch closer to the finish line!

So here’s what WMATA is now proposing:

A Split Blue (or Silver) Line

The key theme throughout these plans is that WMATA is not proposing a Georgetown metro station simply to have a Georgetown metro station. It’s more of a happy byproduct of the need to create a new tunnel under the Potomac river to ease train congestion between Rosslyn and Foggy Bottom. Right now this tunnel cannot accommodate more train traffic than it already handles (well, what it was handling in the pre-Covid era). This situation only got worse with the opening of the first phase of the Silver line, and will just continue to get worse once the rest of the Silver line opens and starts ferrying more workers back and forth (not to mention airline passengers to and from Dulles).

The solution that has been floated since the 90s is to split the Blue and Orange lines between Rosslyn and Foggy Bottom. The Blue line then would run through a new Potomac tunnel and then travel beneath M St. as it makes its way across downtown DC.

Doing so would open the possibility of a Georgetown station, but it’s not the primary objective.

Variability on the Margins

These plans don’t vary much in the way they handle the new tunnel once it leaves Rosslyn and goes across town. Having it go from Georgetown to Union Station has been a consistent plan over the years. And that’s what WMATA is proposing yet again.

But what the line does outside the core has varied quite a bit. And that variation remains on display with this new plan.

One possibility is that the Blue line heads northeast from Union Station and eventually hooks up with the Green line in College Park:

This would have the benefit of bringing Metro to the booming neighborhoods of Union Market and Ivy City. (Although it should be noted that even an optimistic timeline of financing and construction wouldn’t bring this plan to fruition for decades)

Another option would bring the line south from Union Station to National Harbor in Prince Georges County and over the river back to Alexandria:

This would have the benefit of bringing better transit to some fairly transit-starved areas. And it would create the first circle line for Metro.

The final plan doesn’t use the Blue line at all, but rather the Silver:

The line would travel largely the same east of Georgetown as the first one does. But the trains would head out on the Silver line tracks west of Arlington. There’s also a possibility of express service on this line between Falls Church and Rosslyn. (GM personally prefers this proposal.)

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Good morning Georgetown, here’s the latest:

• GU still reporting double digit Covid positives on a weekly basis, but the positivity rate is trending lower. (Though apparently there’s a flu outbreak!).
• Anyone know what the deal is with the vintage DC cab always parked on 28th St.?