Here are the answers to whichWMATA week 136

On Tuesday, we featured the 136th challenge to see how well you know the Metro system. Here are the answers. How'd you do?

This week, we got 18 guesses. Eleven of you got all five. Great work, Peter K, Patrick B, MtPDC, Jay H, Nick, ArlFfx, Isaac Alvarez, Benjamin Nieva, Ginger, Greg Jordan-Detamore, and AlexC!

The first image shows a distant view from high above Silver Spring. Because you can see the entire station and some of the surroundings, the clues here were many. The ability to get a view from this high indicates a station in a high-density area. The presence of the freight tracks straddling the corridor means this is one of the stations between Brookland and Silver Spring, and none of the others has tall buildings. The MARC station to the south and the pocket track to the north are also major clues.

But you don't need me to tell you this, beacuse all 18 of you knew this one!

The second image shows the underside of the elevated structure carrying the Yellow Line northward toward Eisenhower Avenue. This view is taken from the station's northern entrance, looking up. There are only 17 fully or partially elevated stations, so the field was pretty narrow. The presence of the crossover further narrowed this down, and the width between the tracks indicates an island platform station. The height of the trackway here is also an indicator, as few stations are so high above the surface.

Fifteen of you got this one right.

The third image shows the fresh snow from last weekend's storm at Judiciary Square. This station has a pair of direct street-to-platform elevators that bypass the mezzanine, because the station was already designed and under construction before it became clear that the courts would force Metro to include elevators. In the early days, Metro management was adamant at not including elevators, so the early stations (generally those that opened before 1980) sometimes have elevators shoe-horned in in odd places.

These elevators are distinct because they have a silver exterior, rather than Metro's typical brown color. I believe this is to help them blend into the National Police Memorial, which takes up Judiciary Square. You can see some elements of the plaza and pavers through the snow.

Fourteen of you figured this one out.

The fourth image shows the south mezzanine at Anacostia station. It's distinguishable from the very similar north mezzanine because the south mezzanine's end walls are at 45-degree angles to the escalators, whereas they're parallel and perpendicular at the north entry. Additionally, the elevator at the north end is farther away from the top of the escalator. This is one of very few locations where the platform-to-mezzanine arrangement is a bank of three escalators next to an elevator.

Twelve of you guessed correctly.

The final image shows the canopy at Medical Center. This canopy is a larger version than the ones typical at most entrances, so that was a clue. But the surroudings are the main clue here. Recognizing the NIH campus buildings was likely essential to solving this one.

Fourteen of you came to the correct conclusion.

Great work, everyone. Thanks for playing! We'll be back in two weeks with challenge #137.

Information about contest rules, submission guidelines, and a leaderboard is available at http://ggwash.org/whichwmata.