Woodley Park is a station on the Red Line of the Washington Metro. Located at 24th Street and Connecticut AvenueNorthwest, it serves the neighborhoods of Woodley Park and Adams Morgan in Northwest Washington. Like other stations on the Red Line's northern branch, it is rather deep, at below ground. With a vertical rise of, the entrance escalators at Woodley Park are the longest in the District of Columbia and the third longest on the Metrorail system. The original escalators entered service when the station opened in 1981. On January 5, 2015, work began to replace the escalators, expected to run through mid-2018.
History
The station opened on December 5, 1981. Its opening coincided with the completion of of rail northwest of the Dupont Circle station and the opening of the Cleveland Park and Van Ness–UDC stations. Originally known as simply "Zoological Park", in 1979 its name was changed to "Woodley Park–Zoo" because neighbors believed that the name was misleading, as the National Zoological Park is located from the station. The Adams Morgan neighborhood lies at the other end of the nearby Duke Ellington Bridge, and "Adams Morgan" was added to the station name in 1999 to reflect this. On November 3, 2011, the station was renamed to "Woodley Park", with "Zoo/Adams Morgan" as a subtitle.
2004 accident
On November 3, 2004, an out-of-service train rolled backwards into the station and collided with an in-service train. The non-fatal collision injured about 20 people and caused $3.5 million in damages. An investigation determined that the operator of the runaway train was likely asleep.
Station layout
Woodley Park was the first in the system to deviate from the waffle-like coffers found at most underground stations in downtown Washington, instead using a simpler four-coffer arch. The advantage of the four-coffer arch was that it was pre-cast in Winchester, Virginia, and then hauled underground and installed on-site, while the waffle-style arches used in other stations had to be cast in place. This was done as a cost-saving measure. Access to the station's mezzanine is provided by two sets of three escalators, connected by a short walkway just underneath street level. The entrance is located at the southwest corner of Connecticut Avenue and Woodley Road. An elevator connects to the street with the mezzanine, which contains fare control and access to the island platform.
