This is "my" stop. I do not live in Washington, D.C., but I did for more than a decade before…read moremoving on, and, as importantly, my elderly father still lives on his own in the Maryland suburbs. So I am still in the area, this specific neighborhood, just about every month. This is the closest mass transit station, and I probably have used it a dozen times in the past year. All of that is to say I am familiar with it. I am not a daily commuter though.
I write for three reasons.
The first is to praise the design of this system. Brutalism is a terrible style of architecture. However lovely it is in Instagram pictures, it does not work for users, and the name itself would suggest an attitude toward people. But the Metro system is not like office plazas. Massed concrete is aesthetically appropriate, even pleasing, for this usage. These are modern cathedrals (not an original thought of mine as to train terminals; as a college freshman, I took a seminar about the beauty of engineering). The deeply coffered ceilings above the platforms, the incredibly long escalators, and, in this instance, that circular antechamber all give this location a dignity you might not associate with getting large numbers of people on and off the Red Line tracks.
The second is to note this specific venue is, if not unique, at least unusual (I detest the abuse of "unique," which means one of a kind -- I don't know how many other stops of the DC Metro or any system are like this, but I doubt this is the only). It straddles a border. You can enter/exit on the city side or the suburban side. These are officially different legal jurisdictions. That's just neat. For my purposes, I almost always, unless I'm turned around, need to head into Maryland.
The third is to express positive feelings about the neighborhood. I am biased and self interested. I acknowledge that. One should. But this is a livable residential part of the capitol. I have traveled to various capitols. DC is my favorite, and that is not only because I am an American; DC is easy to get around in, even for tourists, and it is eminently suited to middle class families being able to raise children there, which is not true of so many of its counterparts elsewhere. Friendship Heights, in particular the Village (Maryland side), is close enough to downtown to allow easy access, but distant enough for easygoing day to day activities. They say the Village is the single most densely populated municipality in the nation, ahead of New York City even, due to it being a handful of high rise condos packed into such tight quarters.
