Here are the answers to whichWMATA week 162

On Tuesday, we featured the 161st challenge to see how well you know the Metro system. Here are the answers. How’d you do?

This week, we got 25 guesses. Seventeen of you got all five. Great work!

This week, all the photos showed Metro escalators emerging at street level.

The first image shows the northern escalator shaft at Smithsonian station emerging onto the National Mall. The Washington Monument should have been a dead giveaway.

Twenty-four of you knew this one.

The next image looks through the struts supporting the escalator canopy at Waterfront. I had to crop this photo severely to avoid capturing too many hints. The word “SOUTH” in the distance is part of a banner celebrating the surrounding neighborhood, “SOUTHWEST”. Some of you took clues from the building visible at left, with its space-age styling.

Twenty of you got this one right.

The third images show the north escalator at Arlington Cemetery station. Clues include the distinctive hedges running on either side of Memorial Drive. The columns that stand on either side of Memorial Drive where it leaves Memorial Circle are visible in the distance, and provide an additional clue.

All 25 of you figured this one out.

The fourth image looks toward the station utility rooms at the north end of Brookland station, from the western entrance. This escalator shaft is under the Michigan Avenue overpass, though that isn’t visible in the image. It’s difficult to see, but there are two tracks in the foreground and two perimeter fences, one to keep people off the CSX track and a second one to keep people off the WMATA track. The real clue here is the length of the blockhouse between the Red Line tracks. It’s longer than normal because of a bridge abutment (no longer used) that interrupts the structure on the east face (not visible).

Eighteen of you guessed correctly.

The final image shows the main bus transfer area at Stadium-Armory. These on-street bus shelters look like those lined up at suburban terminal stations, but they’re different styles. While Stadium-Armory isn’t a terminal any longer, it was a key transfer point from 1977-1978 when it was the eastern end of the Blue Line. At that time, the western terminus was National Airport. In 1978, the line was extended to New Carrollton, with trains running westbound to National Airport as the Blue Line and eastbound to New Carrollton as the Orange Line. This was necessary because at the time trains used colored roll signs. The situation was resolved after the 1979 opening of the line to Ballston and the 1980 opening of the line to Addison Road.

Twenty-two of you came to the correct conclusion.

Great work, everyone. Thanks for playing! We’ll be back in two weeks with challenge #163.

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