Here are the answers to whichWMATA week 39

On Tuesday, we posted our thirty-ninth photo challenge to see how well you know Metro. I took five photos in the Metro system. Here are the answers. How well did you do?

All five stations featured this week are first-time whichWMATA entries. We got 23 guesses in this round. Only two of you got all five. Great work, Peter K and Mr. Johnson!

The first image shows the main entrance to Court House station, at the southwest corner of Clarendon Boulevard and North Uhle Street. The key to getting this one right was recognizing the yellow awnings above the entrance. Sixteen of you got this one right.

Recognizing the entrance was key for the second image as well. This one is the eastern entrance to McPherson Square station, at the southwest corner of I Street and 14th Street NW. The entrance in this case is the underside of 1400 I Street. The bulky buildings visible at left hint that this entrance is somewhere downtown, which also helped narrow it down. Fourteen of you knew this one.

The third image shows the perspective looking up into the mezzanine at Dunn Loring. This entrance is unique because the escalator/stair bank is offset to the south to allow for a passage along the north edge of the platform to the elevator. The railing indicates that. This configuration is similar to Anacostia (though Anacostia has 3 escalators instead of 2 escalators and a stair), which we featured last week.

There were also two other clues to help you narrow it down. First, the line of skylights visible in the mezzanine is typical of mezzanines in the I-66 median section. Secondly, because I took this picture at about 5:30, the sun is setting and shining directly down the “tunnel” under the mezzanine. That should have told you this was an above-ground station with, roughly, an east-west orientation. Only seven guessed Dunn Loring.

The next image shows a public art installation at eastern entrance to Farragut West station, located on the south side of Farragut Square. Since this is a unique art installation, there wasn’t much to help you figure this out except to have seen it. Seven of you knew it was Farragut West.

The final image is Crystal City. Seeing that the station has a waffle design and side platforms should have significantly narrowed the possibilities. But there is one definitive way to say this is Crystal City: the configuration of the mezzanine.

The escalator configuration at the waffle side platform stations looks like a tuning fork (see this graphic for a visual). At almost all of those stations (like at Dupont Circle), there are two nested at each mezzanine. Crystal City has six escalators, and is arranged uniquely. Two of the “tuning forks” point southward, but one points northward. At Pentagon City, Ballston, and L’Enfant Plaza (7th Street), there are also six escalators, but they have three nested tuning forks all pointing the same direction instead.

In the image above, you can see the solitary northward-facing tuning fork. But on the far side of the tracks, you can also make out two escalators pointed southward if you look closely. That means this must be Crystal City. Twelve of you got this one correct.

Thanks to everyone for playing! Great work. Stay tuned. We’ll have five more images for you next Tuesday.