Here are the answers to whichWMATA week 98
On Tuesday, we featured the ninety-eighth challenge to see how well you knew the Metro system. Here are the answers. How’d you do?
We got 29 guesses. 17 got all five. Great work Eric P, AlexC, Stephen C, Bryce L, Solomon, Aaron R, Peter K, ArlFfx, Justin…, JamesDCane, dpod, maxG, Sunny, DavidDuck, We Will Crush Peter K, Peter K is a nice guy don't be hatin' on him, and Yes2Kwasi!
The first image shows the escalator canopy at Crystal City. The building in the background, 1800 S Bell Street, is one of the styles of building typified by Crystal City, and some of you may have been able to verify this using Google street view. The elevated highway carrying US 1 is just visible at right, though it might not be recognizable as such if you weren't looking for it.
22 got the correct answer.
The second image shows the underside of the Red Line station at Fort Totten, with the station entrance at center. The width of the elevated trackway here is a clue that this is on the part of the Red Line between Fort Totten and Silver Spring, where the Metro tracks are flanked by CSX tracks on either side. The crosswalk leading directly to the entrance only fits Fort Totten, though. At Silver Spring, the entrances face out either side of the viaduct, and there's no crossing of Colesville Road. And Takoma's entrance faces east only.
24 knew the right answer.
White Flint is the third station featured. The tracks here are in an open cut, which narrows the possibilities. The tall buildings along Old Georgetown Road north of the station are also distinctive. Also evident here is the solitary entrance at the southern end of the platform. You can see the diagonal wall where the two escalators and elevator take up the width of the platform.
25 were on point.
This is Morgan Boulevard. Like NoMa and Largo, it has a Gull II canopy. However, it differs significantly from those stations because it has a mezzanine above the tracks rather than below, as is the case at the other stations. The structure seen here is the eastern end of the canopy, and the glass helps to screen the mezzanine from the wind. We featured this architectural feature in weeks 46 and 86.
27 guessed correctly.
The final image shows the southern “dummy” mezzanine at L'Enfant Plaza. This entrance is above the Green and Yellow platforms at the very southern end of the station. But it does not provide access to a station exit. It only serves to allow customers to transfer between the Green and Yellow platforms without going down to the Blue/Orange/Silver platform or all the way to the northern mezzanine. We featured it in week 25.
Given the angle of the camera and distance of the people on the opposite platform, this has to be a side-platform station, which is fairly rare in Metro. Another clue is the metal wall at the end of the mezzanine (since there's no exit there), though it is a little difficult to make out from this angle. Finally, if you look on the right edge of the photo, you can see a “GR” bullet with the start of the word “Branch Avenue”. There are only three side platform Green Line stations, and only L'Enfant is a subway station with the waffle style vault.
23 came to the correct conclusion.
Thanks for playing! We’ll be back in two weeks with our next quiz.
Information about contest rules, submission guidelines, and a leaderboard is available at http://ggwash.org/whichwmata.