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Union Station (Washington)

Washington Union Station
Amtrak, MARC, and VRE railway station
Union Station Washington DC.jpg
Location 50 Massachusetts Avenue NE
Washington, DC
United States
Coordinates 38°53′50″N 77°00′23″W / 38.89731°N 77.00626°W / 38.89731; -77.00626Coordinates: 38°53′50″N 77°00′23″W / 38.89731°N 77.00626°W / 38.89731; -77.00626
Owned by Amtrak and USDOT. Union Station Redevelopment Corp. leased to Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation
Operated by Jones Lang LaSalle
Platforms 18
Tracks 22
Train operators Amtrak, MARC, VRE
Bus stands located on the mezzanine level
Bus operators
Connections Washington Metro Red Line Red Line at Union Station, DC Streetcar
Construction
Parking 2,448
Bicycle facilities 180
Disabled access Yes
Other information
Station code Amtrak code: WAS
IATA code: ZWU
Fare zone 1(VREX)
History
Opened 1908
Rebuilt 1981–1989
Traffic
Passengers (2015) 4,971,128 annually Decrease 1.1% (Amtrak)
Passengers (2016) 28,864 daily Decrease 7.45% (Metro)
Services
Preceding station   BSicon LOGO Amtrak2.svg Amtrak   Following station
Terminus Acela Express
Vermonter
toward St. Albans
toward Chicago
Capitol Limited Terminus
toward Chicago
Cardinal
toward Charlotte
Carolinian
toward New Orleans
Crescent
toward Miami
Silver Meteor
Silver Star
Northeast Regional
toward Savannah
Palmetto
MARC
Brunswick Line Terminus
Terminus Camden Line
Penn Line
toward Perryville
Virginia Railway Express
toward Broad Run
Manassas Line Terminus
toward Spotsylvania
Fredericksburg Line
  Out-of-system interchange  
DC Streetcar
Terminus H Street/Benning Road Line
  Former services  
Baltimore and Ohio
Main Line
Pennsylvania Railroad
Terminus Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad
toward Philadelphia
BSicon LOGO Amtrak2.svg Amtrak
Hilltopper
toward Cincinnati
Shenandoah Terminus
Washington D.C. Union Station
Washington Union Station is located in the District of Columbia
Washington Union Station
Built 1908
Architect D.H. Burnham & Company (William Pierce Anderson, Daniel Burnham)
Architectural style Classical, Beaux-Arts, among others
NRHP Reference # 69000302
Designated  March 24, 1969

Washington Union Station is a major train station, transportation hub, and leisure destination in Washington, D.C. Opened in 1907, it is Amtrak's headquarters and the railroad's second-busiest station with annual ridership of just under 5 million. The station also serves MARC and VRE commuter rail services, the Washington Metro, and buses.

At the height of its traffic, during World War II, as many as 200,000 passengers passed through the station in a single day. In 1988, a headhouse wing was added and the original station renovated for use as a shopping mall. Today, Union Station is one of the busiest rail facilities and shopping destinations in the country, and is visited by over 40 million people a year.

Before Union Station opened, each of the major railroads operated their own stations: Baltimore and Ohio Railroad trains arrived and departed from the New Jersey Avenue Station, while the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad (B&P) (a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad), the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, and the Southern Railway operated from the B&P's station at 6th and B Street, NW—the current location of the National Gallery of Art.

When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad announced in 1901 that they had agreed to build a new union station together, the city had two reasons to celebrate. The decision meant that both railroads would soon remove their trackwork and terminals from the National Mall. Though changes there appeared only gradually, the consolidation of the depots allowed the creation of the Mall as it appears today. Secondly, the plan to bring all the city's railroads under one roof promised that Washington would finally have a station both large enough to handle large crowds and impressive enough to befit the city's role as the federal capital. The station was to be designed under the guidance of Daniel Burnham, a famed Chicago architect and member of the U.S. Senate Park Commission, who in September 1901 wrote to the Commission's chairman, Sen. James McMillan, of the proposed project: "The station and its surroundings should be treated in a monumental manner, as they will become the vestibule of the city of Washington, and as they will be in close proximity to the Capitol itself."


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Wikipedia

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