Washington station (CTA Red Line)

Washington
Washington in May 2005 prior to its October 2006 closure
Location	128 North State Street Chicago, Illinois 60602
Coordinates	41°53′01″N 87°37′40″W / 41.8837°N 87.6278°W / 41.8837; -87.6278
Owned by	City of Chicago
Line(s)	Red Line
Platforms	1 Island platform
Tracks	2
Connections	(Formerly via Washington)   Blue Line
Construction
Structure type	Subway
History
Opened	October 17, 1943
Closed	October 23, 2006
Services
Preceding station   Chicago "L"   Following station State Street Subway Lake toward Howard Red Line Monroe toward 95th/Dan Ryan
Route map Red Line north to Howard Platform open trains do not stop Red Line south to 95th/Dan Ryan

Washington is an abandoned 'L' station on the CTA's Red Line. It is a subway station in the State Street Subway located at 128 North State Street in downtown Chicago, Illinois. It is the only closed station on the Red Line.

The platform at Washington is part of a long continuous platform beneath State Street which runs from the Jackson station to the Lake station, spanning nearly seven blocks, making it the United States' longest continuous passenger platform. There were two mezzanines with turnstiles for the station: a northern at Randolph shared with the Lake station and a southern at Madison. There are stairs and escalators along State Street between Randolph and Madison to access both mezzanines. Additionally, Washington is equipped with an elevator and was therefore accessible to people with disabilities.

There are two abandoned stairways on the platform to a lower level pedestrian tunnel that connected the Washington station to its counterpart on the Blue Line subway, Washington/Dearborn, to allow transfers between the Red and Blue Lines. Lake station to the north of Washington and Washington were originally a single station, but they were separated on June 2, 1996 due to the renovation project of the Randolph-Washington mezzanine and Lake became an independent station on November 18, 1997 in order to better facilitate transfers between the Red Line subway and the elevated State/Lake station.

As part of the development of 108 North State Street (commonly known as "Block 37") the CTA planned to construct a superstation located between the Red and Blue Lines (which run in parallel subways through the Loop). Washington station, and the lower level transfer tunnel to the Blue Line were closed at 12:00 a.m. on October 23, 2006 for work related to the construction of this new station. The platform was cut at an angle to facilitate a future track connection from the northbound State Street track to the super station and the northbound Blue Line track north of Washington, linking O'Hare and Midway airports via the Blue, Red, and Orange lines' tracks. A similar excavation was made north of the Blue Line's Washington station to allow a future connection for southbound Blue Line trains to travel east to the super station and the southbound Red Line track.