The 'Blue Line' of the
Washington Metro consists of 27
subway stations from
Franconia-Springfield to
Largo Town Center. It has stations in
Fairfax County,
Alexandria and
Arlington, Virginia, the
District of Columbia, and
Prince George's County, Maryland. Most of the line's stations are shared with the
Orange Line, and another portion is also shared by the
Yellow Line; only eight stations are exclusive to the Blue Line.
History
Service on the Blue Line began on
July 1,
1977 on eighteen stations between
National Airport in Arlington and
Stadium-Armory in Washington, the first link of the Metro to
Virginia. The line was extended by three stations to
Addison Road on
November 22,
1980.
It started service south of National Airport on
June 15,
1991 when
Van Dorn Street was opened. The original plan for the line was completed when this link was extended to
Franconia-Springfield on
June 29,
1997. Two new stations in
Maryland,
Morgan Boulevard and
Largo Town Center, opened on
December 18,
2004. These two stations are the first beyond the original plan.
The Blue Line was originally planned to follow a slightly different route than it now follows. The original plan would have sent Blue Line trains to
Huntington, with Yellow Line trains serving Franconia-Springfield. This was changed due to a shortage of rail cars at the time of the completion of the line to Huntington. As fewer rail cars were required to operate Yellow Line service than it would be to run Blue Line service out to Huntington, due to the Yellow Line's shorter route, the line designations were switched. Currently, the Blue Line only operates to Huntington on
July 4, as part of Metro's special service pattern on that day.
List of stations, west to east
★
Franconia-Springfield
★
Van Dorn Street
★
King Street (
Yellow Line joins on same track)
★
Braddock Road
★
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
★
Crystal City
★
Pentagon City
★
Pentagon (
Yellow Line diverges)
★
Arlington Cemetery
★
Rosslyn (
Orange and planned
Silver Lines join on same track)
★
Foggy Bottom-GWU
★
Farragut West
★
McPherson Square
★
Metro Center (Transfer station for the
Red Line)
★
Federal Triangle
★
Smithsonian
★
L'Enfant Plaza (Transfer station for the
Yellow and
Green Lines)
★
Federal Center SW
★
Capitol South
★
Eastern Market
★
Potomac Ave
★
Stadium-Armory (
Orange Line diverges, and planned
Silver Line ends)
★
Benning Road
★
Capitol Heights
★
Addison Road-Seat Pleasant
★
Morgan Boulevard
★
Largo Town Center
See also
★
List of Washington Metro stations
External links
★ world.nycsubway.org:
Blue Line