Dupont Underground
A few months ago I got a rare chance to visit what is left of Washington D.C.'s Dupont Circle underground trolley station. A group is trying to raise money to turn it into some kind of art project or something so they allowed a few photographers in to help spread the word. Basically this station was built in the late 1940s. It lasted until the early 1960s when the trolley started to die off and they just built Connecticut Ave. straight under the circle cutting off the trolley tunnel on each end. So for 50 years this tunnel has been mostly in disuse. In 1995 they briefly had part of it become an eateries but I guess the appeal of eating inside of a tunnel is limited, as well as depressing.
1. A map of the current metro system, for some reason it is down here...
2. Pizza Express, one of the eateries, it looks like a trolley even...
3. One of the old entrances from below. Up top there are several of these grates that are boarded up. They once led down here...
4. Etching on a door...
5. Caged like rats...
6. Trays left behind...
7. The end of one side of the tunnel, behind me is just a wall...
8. Some of it had lights...
9. The trolleys had "plows" which stuck into these gaps and received electricity from below...
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15. There were about 50 people who passed through here this day...
16. My friend trying to see if this hatch above leads down to the station. People on Flickr seemed to think this is how we accessed the place. Who am I to tell them otherwise...
Video:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theneighborhoodwatch/6342610754/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theneighborhoodwatch/sets/72157627997223475/