Secrets of the DC Metro Green Line

I didn't realize how much art the metro had. Even at my home station you're showing me art I've never noticed.

For Maryland football games, I drive from Grosvenor to Forest Glen park there, get on a Red Line train and change at Fort Totten for a northbound Green Line train to Greenbelt, get off at College Park-UMD and take the free Shuttle UM Quickbus Shuttle which drops me off a block and a half from SECU Stadium.

A few other secrets of the Green line. Adjacent to inbound track E2 between the Greenbelt and Collage Park stations is a test track that exists for the sole purpose of testing new rolling stock and major modification done to existing rolling stock. All of the 7k cars were acceptance tested on the test track. Prior to the building of the test track the mainline tracks between the Greenbelt and Collage Park stations were used to do the acceptance testing of the 5 and 6k cars. The elevated structure west of the West Hyattsville station are the first use of post tension precast concrete segment bridge construction used on the system. The Columbia Heights stations is unique in that it was not built using the typical cut and cover method of construction or mined out of the bedrock. It is a hybrid of both. The stations arched vault is assembled from 432 precast concrete segments in a reinforced concrete cavern created by placing pair of slurry walls that support a reinforced concrete arch. The soil was then mined out from under the arch while at the same time the street and sidewalks above it was restored. As to the arch design of the Shaw station. This was the result of the design change and the availability of forms used to cast the concrete in the 3 stations. The construction of the Mount Vernon station was begun shortly before the construction Shaw station began. The construction U Street made use of the forms used to construction Mount Vernon station as the forms used to construction Shaw station were still being used. Later stations built with the 6 coffer design used the forms to build the Shaw station. The passageway in the New Jersey Avenue entrance to the Navy Yard station has provisions for a future surface entrance on the south side of M Street. The tunnels between the Navy Yard and Anacostia stations were bored using a pressure balanced tunnel boring machine. It was the first time this type of boring machine was ever used to bore tunnels through sedimentary soils on the system.They are also the only tunnels with precast concrete linings that don't have a cast in place inner lining. The point south of the Anacostia station where cut and cover transition to bored tunnels to the Southern Avenue station were also bored using a pressure balanced tunnel boring machine.

12:37 That picture of the unused platforms gave me the chills. Like a cursed AI photo of what DC Metro is suppose to look like.

More on College Park Airport: College Park Airport was established back in 1909 by the Army Signal Corps as a training location for Wilbur Wright to instruct military officers to fly in the government's first airplane! A Wright Model A biplane was assembled there in October of that year. Civilian operations began as early as December 1911. It is truly an airport of firsts, as besides Lieutenants Frederic Humphreys and Frank Lahm becoming the first military pilots to solo in a government airplane (Humphreys was the very first), Ralph Henry Van Deman was flown by Wilbur Wright to become the first woman to fly in a powered aircraft in the US as well! Hyattsville was named by its founder Christopher Clark Hyatt, who lived from 1799 to 1884. He purchased his first parcel of land in the area in 1845. Hyatt opened a store and began mail delivery, officially naming the nascent community Hyattsville in his 1859 application to become postmaster. In the years following the Civil War, Hyatt and other local landowners subdivided their properties and sold lots, and the population of Hyattsville grew. Hyattsville was incorporated as a city in April 1886!

I have been waiting for this for some time. I loved the Secrets of the Red Line and Blue Line, and I kept checking for a new video. When I saw it, I stopped my morning routine and watched it immediately. I live in Flagstaff, Arizona, but I love the DC Metro system. I feel safer riding on it than any other system, New York, BART (San Francisco), Atlanta or Chicago. I am eagerly anticipating the next "Secrets" video.

New "Andy on Track" Metro video dropped on a Monday morning- great start to the week!

I'm a common green line rider and this was a fascinating watch I love watching these videos

Baby wake up, a new secrets of the metro dropped

I moved from DC to the Bay Area and this video got me all kinds of nostalgic

Lake Artemesia is called such because it was named after Artemesia N. Drefs, who donated ten lots to the county for preservation as open space in 1972. Petworth was the name of the 205-acre country estate of John Tayloe III, of Mount Airy and The Octagon House, named for the ancient town of Petworth in West Sussex, England. Here he kept horses for the races at the Washington Jockey Club, a club he founded with Charles Carnan Ridgely of Hampton. Anacostia on the other hand got its name from the indigenous Nacotchtank who had a settlement along its banks called “anaquash,” which means “village trading center.” Historians estimate that they lived on the river for 10,000 years.

Fun video! Surprised there was no mention of purple line construction at College Park. One secret that you missed: Between Greenbelt and College Park, there is briefly a third track off to the side. I believe this is metro's official test track for if they need to run equipment back and forth without disrupting service. Also, at Greenbelt station, there is a sneaky narrow sidewalk that goes under the interstate and leads you to the yard. Lastly, correct me if I'm wrong, but just north of Greenbelt yard is one of the few if not the only track connection between Metro and mainline rail. While the tracks are severed, I've heard they can put the rails back in for when they need to take deliveries of equipment via mainline rail.

Saw the notification, clicked immediately. Love these videos!

Fairly certain Suitland is pronounced more closely to "sweet-land". Also one fun tidbit missed, the tracks between Columbia Heights and Georgia Ave-Petworth, namely those under Park Rd NW, is the only spot in the system where the tracks run stacked on top of each other as opposed to side by side/in parallel tunnels. This was due to the narrowness of this road and to limit impact on the homes above.

Been eagerly awaiting this vid! I lived in the DC area back in the late 80s. Love the proverbial ride down memory lane (er, line?) and to see how things have changed over the years!

A few points... 1) Lake Artemesia was expanded specifically to cover the excavation damage following the construction of the Green Line. It wasn't that the lake was expanded and the fill was used to construct the Metro. It was cheaper to source the material locally, and the lake was constructed to fill the hole. 2) The connector track at Fort Totten was not built with the intention of using it for revenue service. That track, known as the B&E (because it connects the B and E routes) is designed for moving equipment on and off of the Red Line. A similar track exists between McPherson Square and Farragut North, known as the C&A. It just worked out that the B&E could be used for the commuter shortcut, but that was never its intended purpose. 3) L'Enfant Plaza, despite what most operators say, is not pronounced "Luh-font". The first syllable is pronounced like "Lon", which rhymes with "con" and "don".

Branch Avenue was included in the original 1969 metro plan. But it was not built until 2000.

The Greenline is the only line completely contained inside the beltway

EVERYONE WAKE UP THE NEW DC METRO VIDEO DROPPED (I love these, thank you!!!)

We need some Andy in the track metro secrets merch!!!