Washington DC

I'd like to spend a few days visiting the Smithsonion Institute
in Washington DC. ( no other siteseeing )

On a trip years ago, lodging in DC was horrendous,
and driving/parking was darn near impossible.

Is there a way to ;
a. Stay at a modestly priced motel
b. Take public transport to/from the museum

( or any combination of these )





rj

"RJ" wrote in message
...

I'd like to spend a few days visiting the Smithsonion Institute
in Washington DC. ( no other siteseeing )

On a trip years ago, lodging in DC was horrendous,
and driving/parking was darn near impossible.

Is there a way to ;
a. Stay at a modestly priced motel
b. Take public transport to/from the museum


Yes , stay at the Harrington, its a few minutes walk away.

The hotel is old and shabby but clean and only a couple of
blocks away.

http://www.hotel-harrington.com/

Keith

(RJ) wrote in
:

Is there a way to ;
a. Stay at a modestly priced motel
b. Take public transport to/from the museum

Absolutely.

Look at the DC Metro system map

http://www.wmata.com/metrorail/systemmap.cfm

The Smithsonian station is on the Blue/Orange lines, but unless the
weather is a problem, it's not a terrible walk from Metro Center, so
the Red line would be OK too.

My wife had to attend a conference in DC with a limited hotel
allowance and ended up in Bethesda Maryland on Wisconsin Avenue
near the National Institutes of Health. The Metro "red" line runs
right under Wisconsin Avenue and the ride took only a (relatively)
few minutes each way.


--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN |

"RJ" wrote:

On a trip years ago, lodging in DC was horrendous,
and driving/parking was darn near impossible.

While your observation on parking is very accurate (not sure about the driving
part, but I live her, and I know we have bad traffic), but what do you mean by
lodging being horrendous?

Do you mean impossible to find?
Do you mean unbelievably expensive? (If so what price range is expensive?)
Do you mean bad service? Filthy?

Where did you stay?

Julie

Is there a way to ;
a. Stay at a modestly priced motel
b. Take public transport to/from the museum


--
Julie
**********
Check out my Travel Pages (non-commercial) at
http://www.dragonsholm.org/travel.htm

In article , Bert Hyman wrote:

The Smithsonian station is on the Blue/Orange lines, but unless the
weather is a problem, it's not a terrible walk from Metro Center, so
the Red line would be OK too.

To change from the red line to either the blue or orange line will require
only a two minute walk to a slightly different platform within the Metro
station without needing to exit or pay for a new ticket anywhere. Usually
there's another train arriving or soon to be arriving so it works out
nicely.

Although, yes, you are correct... DC is indeed pretty walkable -- even from
Union Station to the Capitol is only about 16-20 blocks or so (and say, an
half hour walk, maybe? It's been a while now but I used to do this walk).
It's a nice area by Metro Center/Federal Triangle/Smithsonian.

I remember when they were building the Wheaton Metro stop out in MD about a
decade or so ago. It's *very* deep by Metro standards -- 196 feet under the
ground! When they were building it out, I used to pass nearby and they had
this *HUUUUUUGE* hole in the ground that was simply staggering and
unbelievably _HERCULEAN_ in size and depth. Was neat seeing where the
tunnels were inserted. It's so deep that it's one of the few Metro stations
where you need to take an elevator to the surface rather than an escalator!
(They have very, very good fire related systems there -- it was required
for certification.)

The elevator is pretty darned fast, too. 196 feet is almost from the ground
to the top of the statue atop the U.S. Capitol, for a point of comparison
[thanks to the Washington Post article for pointing this out during the
inaugural weekend!]. The weekend it first opened, a few friends and I rode
out there just simply to try out the elevators and seeing the completed
place :-)

-Dan

Dan Foster wrote:
I remember when they were building the Wheaton Metro stop out in MD about a
decade or so ago. It's *very* deep by Metro standards -- 196 feet under the
ground! When they were building it out, I used to pass nearby and they had
this *HUUUUUUGE* hole in the ground that was simply staggering and
unbelievably _HERCULEAN_ in size and depth. Was neat seeing where the
tunnels were inserted. It's so deep that it's one of the few Metro stations
where you need to take an elevator to the surface rather than an escalator!

There are escalators at Wheaton. If you had to use an elevator I can't
imagine anyone would ride the train there; Metro elevators are incredibly
slow compared to walking, even worse than normal elevators.

miguel
--
Hit The Road! Photos and tales from around the world: http://travel.u.nu

Miguel Cruz wrote:

There are escalators at Wheaton. If you had to use an elevator I can't
imagine anyone would ride the train there; Metro elevators are incredibly
slow compared to walking, even worse than normal elevators.


And many of them are often "out of service", besides....

And IIRC it's Wheaton that has the second - longest subway escalator in the
world. First is in Moscow.


--
Best
Greg

RJ wrote:

I'd like to spend a few days visiting the Smithsonion Institute
in Washington DC. ( no other siteseeing )

On a trip years ago, lodging in DC was horrendous,
and driving/parking was darn near impossible.

Is there a way to ;
a. Stay at a modestly priced motel
b. Take public transport to/from the museum

( or any combination of these )


Try here for good hotel deals:

http://www.capitolreservations.com/

Depending on your dates, you can get some good rates (especially in the
winter months).

As others have said, park the car when in DC. It's pretty compact, and it's
easy to get around by public transport or walking (or by taking the
ocassional cab).

--
Best
Greg

On Tue, 14 Oct 2003 11:50:16 -0400, "RJ"
wrote:


I'd like to spend a few days visiting the Smithsonion Institute
in Washington DC. ( no other siteseeing )

On a trip years ago, lodging in DC was horrendous,
and driving/parking was darn near impossible.

Is there a way to ;
a. Stay at a modestly priced motel


We just returned from the Harrington - $89 per night plus $10 to park
the car (their cartpark is about three blocks away). We never used
the car in DC, walking mostly or taking the metro. If all you want to
do is see the Smithsonian(s) you can easily walk from the Harrington.
It is an old hotel, but clean, decent and centrally located. We were
upgraded to a small suite (#930) with minifridge and microwave. So
if you ask for a fridge they may put you in the small suite

Have fun.


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In article , Miguel Cruz wrote:

There are escalators at Wheaton. If you had to use an elevator I can't

I seem to have forgotten it was an elevator+escalator combo. Cobwebbed
memory!

Dug up old notes - looks like I visited it with friends (one was from South
Africa) on the day it opened with fanfare -- Saturday, September 22, 1990.

imagine anyone would ride the train there; Metro elevators are incredibly
slow compared to walking, even worse than normal elevators.

The one they had for the then-new stop was touted as being one of the
faster elevators -- I seem to recall the Post said it was 7 feet per
second.

The entire system was designed to have at least one elevator in *every*
single station for accommodation of disabled individuals on an as needed
basis, so elevators were present from day one, but the majority also
complemented it with stairs and escalators.

They goofed with the first five stations (Union Station, Farragut North,
Metro Center, Judiciary Square, and Rhode Island) so they had to alter the
design plans mid-construction to put in elevators, but all subsequent
stations had them built into the design plans before construction started.

My only concern was with the Wheaton design *requiring* all to use
elevators was it being a potential bottleneck during crowded times; other
folks were more concerned about ability to quickly escape in case of fire.
Metro did have to undergo additional certification tests for these things
to open Wheaton and Forest Glen given their somewhat different risks, IIRC.

I do recall thinking the escalator sure looked longer than even the one at
Dupont Circle (which was previously my standard benchmark for 'long'). I
knew I'd get a mild case of vertigo if I looked back downwards while going
up at Dupont Circle... so I didn't! It was just that long.

Station Vertical Rise Total Length
-------------------- ------------- ------------
Dupont Circle 95' 190'
Rosslyn 98' 196'
Medical Center 101' 202'
Woodley Zoo Park 103' 206'
Bethesda 107' 214'
Wheaton 115' 230'

(The angle for escalators is 30 degrees...basic trig yields the total
length of the ride.)

The Wheaton station is 196' deep, but the escalator only goes down 115', so
elevators needed to complete the rest of the descent into the station. At
7'/sec, would cover that distance in about 11-12 seconds at full speed;
probably about a total elevator ride of ~20 seconds? Not too bad. As long
as all elevators remained operable during peak periods and people didn't
pile up at either the top or bottom of station, no problems.

Forest Glen doesn't have any escalators, I believe. Only elevators (has
six?).

The Metro has three classes of escalators:

Class A: vertical rise of up to 20'; 1.75 flat steps, 90-120 fpm.
Class B: vertical rise of up to 60'; 3 flat steps, 90-120 fpm.
Class C: vertical rise of greater than 60'; 4 flat steps, 112-150 fpm.

By 'flat steps', that's how you can identify which escalator type, even if
you don't know exactly how high the vertical rise is.

At either top or bottom, note how many flat steps before it starts moving
upwards or downwards. That's all there is to ID'ing the elevator type!

These speeds are *much* faster than escalators you may be used to elsewhere
(stores, malls, etc). I suspect they operate the Wheaton escalators at
about 90 fpm. (Escalator trip time is about 2m40s)

Bet you never noticed the differing types of escalators in the Metro!

I haven't been to Moscow yet but it's still pretty high on my list for a
future trip, and hopefully in the winter. The majestic subways is something
I've heard much about and seen some dazzling pictures of, so will
definitely check it out then.

-Dan

(I know I'm combining two posts in one from memory -- my news reader
doesn't allow me to directly quote from more than one post at a time.)