Washington Union Station

[7] An intermodal facility, Union Station also serves MARC and VRE commuter rail services, the Washington Metro, the DC Streetcar, intercity bus lines, and local Metrobus buses.As of 2014, Union Station was one of the busiest rail facilities and shopping destinations in the United States, visited by over 40 million people a year.[10] However, the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors caused a sharp decline in retail and dining; by late 2022, more than half its commercial space was vacant,[11] but Amtrak is attempting to regain control of the station and plans a major renovation and expansion."[17] After two years of complicated and sometimes contentious negotiations, Congress passed S. 4825 (58th-1st session) entitled "An Act to provide a union railroad station in the District of Columbia" which was signed into law by 26th President Theodore Roosevelt on February 28, 1903.The only railroad station in the nation specifically authorized by the U.S. Congress, the building was primarily designed by William Pierce Anderson of the Chicago architectural firm of D.H. Burnham & Company.[23] At the association's March 10, 1902, meeting, its president told the audience that the District Commissioners had heard their complaints, and that H Street would remain open with a 750-foot (230 m) tunnel running under the tracks.4876, hit the bumper block at about 35 miles per hour (56 km/h), jumped onto the platform, destroyed the stationmaster's office at the end of the track, took out a newsstand, and was on its way to crashing through the wall into the Great Hall.[33] The durable design of the GG1 made its damage repairable, and it was soon back in service after being hauled away in pieces to the PRR's main shops in Altoona, Pennsylvania.Before the latter action was undertaken, however, the GG1 and the hole it made were temporarily planked over and hidden from view due to the imminent inauguration of General Dwight D. Eisenhower as the thirty-fourth President of the United States.[35] World War II was the busiest period in the station's history in terms of passenger traffic, with up to 200,000 people passing through on a single day.Funding for this was collected over the next six years, and the reconstruction of the station included outfitting the Main Hall with a recessed pit to display a slide show presentation.Financial considerations caused the National Park Service to close the theaters, end the slideshow presentation in "the Pit", and lay off almost three-quarters of the center's staff on October 28, 1978.[37] On observing its low ceiling and plastic chairs New Yorker magazine editor E. M. Frimbo described it as "...a bad small town bus terminal."[40] On October 19, administration officials and members of the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation agreed on additional aspects of the plan.Mold was growing in the leaking ceiling of the Main Hall, and the carpet laid out for an Inauguration Day celebration was full of cigarette-burned holes.[11] Columbus Circle has been rebuilt to fix its deteriorated roadbed, adjust the passenger pickup/dropoff locations, streamline the taxi stand, and better accommodate tour buses.[citation needed] In April 2022, Amtrak began condemnation proceedings to take over the leasehold interest, saying that “poor maintenance and lack of capital investment” had “plagued” the station for years.[52] On April 17, 2024, U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Amtrak could seize the station’s commercial space through eminent domain, with the price to be set later.Classical elements included the Arch of Constantine (exterior, main façade) and the great vaulted spaces of the Baths of Diocletian (interior); prominent siting at the intersection of two of Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant's avenues, with an orientation that faced the United States Capitol just five blocks away; a massive scale, including a façade stretching more than 600 feet (180 m) and a waiting room ceiling 96 feet (29 m) above the floor; stone inscriptions and allegorical sculpture in the Beaux-Arts style; expensive materials such as marble, gold leaf and white granite from a previously unused quarry.[citation needed] The massive plaster statues which were modelled after ancient Roman soldiers, are also called Legionnaires and symbolically, they are a protective force, guarding over all who travel through the halls of Union Station.Burnham drew upon a tradition, launched with the 1837 Euston railway station in London, of treating the entrance to a major terminal as a triumphal arch.From Union Station, Amtrak also operates long-distance service to the Southeast and Midwest, including many intermediate stops to destinations such as Chicago, Charlotte, New Orleans, and Miami.For example, when a southbound Northeast Regional train arrives on a lower-level platform on its way to Newport News, Virginia, its Siemens ACS-64 electric engine is removed and set aside.A GE Genesis diesel engine that was earlier removed from a northbound train is coupled to the front of the southbound, and it continues through the tunnel toward Virginia.[60] On August 1, 2011, John Porcari, the United States Deputy Secretary of Transportation, announced that Greyhound Lines, BoltBus, Megabus, and Washington Deluxe would begin operating intercity buses later that year from a new bus facility in the station's parking garage.On August 16, 2024, Megabus discontinued service nationwide after the parent company filed for bankruptcy earlier in the year,[64] prompting Peter Pan to take over the former's northeastern bus routes from Union Station.