Transit

Take transit to the Mall this 4th of July

by Erik Weber   •   July 1, 2010 10:10 am

Last week WMATA announced extra service for Independence Day this year in anticipation of an afternoon Nationals game and the various Fourth of July events on the Mall.

Photo by M.V. Jantzen on Flickr.

While Metrorail will operate rush-hour level service from 6 pm on, bikes will not be allowed on the system any time on July 4th, and yellow line trains will terminate at Mt. Vernon Sq. all day. Metrobus will remain on a Sunday schedule.

The Smithsonian Metrorail station will be closed throughout the day until the conclusion of the fireworks, probably around 10 pm. (Track this and other disruptions on our Disruption Calendar). Metro recommends that riders use a variety of alternate stations to make their way to the Mall.

In a stroke of foresight and user-friendliness, Metro offered specific station recommendations for users coming from each rail line terminus. Riders should avoid transfers if at all possible, since large crowds, large portions of which will be unfamiliar with the system, are sure to occur at the major transfer stations.

There will be several major events happening on the Mall on Sunday, including the Smithsonian Folklife Festival (which actually runs July 1-5), the Capitol Fourth Concert, and the Capitol Fourth Fireworks show.

We have created a map showing all of the closest Metro stations to the mall along with the location of these events.

Below is a table of the Mall station recommendations from Metro. We've added Archives-Navy Memorial which is oddly absent from Metro's recommendations, as well as our recommendations for the best stations for the Capitol all while avoiding transfers, based on your trip origin. We've also added Federal Triangle back to the table, but caution readers against using that station acknowledging that Metro expects the largest crowds at this station, being the closest to the Mall after Smithsonian. UPDATE: Metro announced this morning that it will part from standard procedure and keep the Arlington Cemetery station open until midnight, rather than closing it at the usual 10pm.

If you are simply traveling to the Mall generally without a very specific destination, and you don't mind walking, get off the Metro a stop or two before the transfer stations and the stations closest to the mall, which are bound to be busiest.

While none of these stations are quite as central to the Mall as the Smithsonian Station, it's worth noting that every one of them is less than a mile from Mall, and more than half are under a half-mile walk from the Mall. If you're truly walking-averse, here you can see the approximate distances for each of the stations.

To move about the Mall throughout the day, we could normally recommend the Smithsonian Loop Circulator. Yesterday afternoon, though, DDOT announced that the Smithsonian Loop route will not run at all on Sunday.

The 7th Street-Waterfront route will be split in two, with one route running from the Convention Center south along 9th Street to E Street and then north on 7th Street back to the Convention Center, and the other running from Water Street at the Southwest Waterfront north on 7th Street, making a loop around D, 6th, and E Streets SW and heading south again on 7th. The Union Station-Navy Yard route will not serve the Capitol, instead running southeast along Massachusetts Avenue to 2nd Street NE, behind the library of Congress and resume its normal route on Pennsylvania Avenue at Penn & 2nd SE. You can see these detours on the map above.

The Capitol Fourth Concert stage will be set up in front of the Capitol Reflecting Pool facing the Capitol. The West Lawn of the Capitol will be open and free to the public beginning at 3 pm. There will be security checkpoints where visitors will have their bags inspected and be required to pass through a metal detector. The Capitol Police have yet to release any additional information with details or locations of the checkpoints. The West Lawn will remain open during the fireworks.

If you're like me, and want to see the fireworks but have little desire to battle the throngs around the Mall, skip the Metro all together and find a perch at a slightly more distant location with a good view. Some of these, like the Iwo Jima Memorial, may be just as busy as the Mall, but are less likely to be packed with tourists.

Some other places include high points near Arlington Cemetery (the Cemetery itself closes at 7). However, the Arlington Cemetery Metro station will still close at 10 pm despite a high likelihood that the fireworks will not end until later. Metro announced this morning that they will keep the Arlington Cemetery station open until midnight, allowing riders to board the Blue Line there after the conclusion of the fireworks. There's also the Kennedy Center Terrace, one of DC's numerous roof-top patios, or maybe (if you're brave) even the Ellipse.

Have you scoped out a good spot? Share it with other readers, if you dare.

Erik Weber has been living car-free in the District since 2009. Hailing from the home of the nation's first Urban Growth Boundary, Erik has been interested in transit since spending summers in Germany as a kid where he rode as many buses, trains and streetcars as he could find. Views expressed here are Erik's alone.