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'Gallery Pl-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 Pl-Chinatown is located in Northwest Washington, 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.^[2]

Contents

Service

Improvements

Notable places nearby

References

External links

Service

Service began on December 15, 1976, as part of the original Red line that ran from Farragut North to Rhode Island Avenue. 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 and Anacostia.

Improvements

Plans are in the works to add a pedestrian tunnel to connect Gallery Pl-Chinatown with Metro Center, with details in Metro's Capital Improvement Plan dated September 12, 2002.
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.

Notable places nearby

★ Ford's Theater

★ International Spy Museum

★ J. Edgar Hoover Building (headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation)

★ Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library (main branch of the DC Public Library)

★ National Building Museum

★ National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial

★ National Portrait Gallery

★ Smithsonian American Art Museum

★ Verizon Center (home of the Washington Wizards, Washington Capitals, Washington Mystics, and Georgetown Hoyas)

★ Washington Convention Center

References

1. Metro Sees Explosive Ridership Numbers, approximated from daily ridership of 19,474; 2005 ridership unknown
2. http://www.wmata.com/about/artwork/red/ch_glory_1.html

External links

★ WMATA: Gallery Pl-Chinatown Station

★ StationMasters Online: Gallery Pl-Chinatown Station

★ The Schumin Web Transit Center: Gallery Pl-Chinatown Station (Upper Level)

★ The Schumin Web Transit Center: Gallery Pl-Chinatown Station (Lower Level)