DC's abandoned pre-Metro subway tunnels
 

Like every large American city, Washington, DC used to have an extensive trolley system. There was 1 short subway segment, under Connecticut Avenue, with a station beneath Dupont Circle. The Dupont subway operated from 1949 until 1962. I got a tour of it yesterday, so here are the pictures.

The contemporary Dupont Circle Metro station is a totally different facility, deeper underground.

All the entrances to the Dupont subway remain on the sidewalk. They look much more like New York subway entrances than modern DC Metro ones. They're all boarded up. One of them has a locked gate, which is how we were let in:




Descending down the stairs:






The stairs lead straight onto what used to be the trolley platform. Trolleys curved around the circle, directly under the roundabout surface streets.






This was the entrance we used:




There are several other entrances:






The Mass Ave entrance marks the end of the station and the beginning of the tunnels. These extend about a block and a half both north and south of the circle, under Connecticut Avenue.




When the subway was operating, pedestrians wouldn't have walked through these tunnels. But we did.








Looking back on the platform area:




At the end of the tunnels the two tracks come together. Prior to 1962 they would have then moved above ground and run in the street median, but now they just end at a capped off wall.






It's much the same on the other end:






Mid way through the tunnel there's a maintenance door that leads directly onto Connecticut Avenue (there's a small ledge for pedestrians but not a crosswalk). We probably freaked out some drivers by stepping out.




The old tracks are still in place. There are three because DC's old trolleys used a unique underground electric conduit for power instead of overhead wires. The power line ran down the middle of the tracks. The same system cannot be used today because it would be too much of an insurance liability; people on the street might stick their fingers into the conduit and electrocute themselves.




The tracks are not in usable condition. In some places they're still decent, and in others all that's left is an iron-colored dust. A lot of them look like this:




The walls and support beams are in none too great shape either.




The tour organizers gave us a brief slideshow while we were down there. Here's a map of the tunnels:




They want to repurpose the space as an art gallery, but don't have any money.




Investors are difficult to come by because in the 1990s there was an effort to open up the space as a food court, and it failed miserably. Here's what the old food court space looks like now:


photo from conoperative


Here's the old girl in use:


photo from conoperative

cool tour. other places have those too. some people in nyc have proposed turning one under delancey street into a 'lowline' park (after the highline park). certainly these old transit tunnels could be put back to use somehow someday rather than leaving them abandoned or than filling them in -- a great project for creative minds!

WOW, this thread is awesome! Great pics!

Wow, that place would make for a kick ass art gallery.

Nice pictures! Never knew that there was a trolley system in DC, with an underground stop!

so that's what those things are; i always though they were some kind of ventilation/pipes control box.

very interesting, thanks for the pics

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Very cool. A gallery sounds like a hell of a lot better idea than a food court.

That was fun as hell. How'd you make a connection to tour? Great stuff Dan, thanks.

Cool thread!

That was amazing. I had no idea that this short subway existed. Thanks for the tour!

Very cool! It's too bad it cannot be repurposed to serve public transportation in some other fashion--the new streetcars or perhaps BRT--but a gallery there would be cool too.

techno club. and they could even call it something corny like DC Underground. cool space though. a nice argon laser pulsing back and fourth thru the tunnels would be cool!

A dream come true if I were on that tour. Time to google the pre-metro subway tunnels

I don't know about y'all, but to me, this is the stuff of horror movies.

TRAPPED.

IN AN ABANDONED TUNNEL.

NO WAY OUT.

Lawd jesus.

^^even scarier, trapped with gaunt ravers trying to share your water or get you to sniff dust masks smeared with vicks!

My thoughts exactly! There aren't a lot of uses that an abandoned tunnel can successfully be repurposed for....except for nightclubs or art galleries - and pretty damn cool ones, at that.

Man, even your abandoned subway tunnels are clean!

I remember when they were used for a food court. Thanks for the pictures.

Fascinating; I never knew those were there either. Like ColDayMan said... strangely bright and clean down there!

I heard the stories when I lived on NH, now I've seen it! I assume CT Ave. runs below it?

Wait- I just figured it out- CT Ave is at the same level while the tracks were capped.