Two hundred years after the Declaration of Independence, Washington, D.C. was getting ready to inaugurate its own underground public transit system, the new Washington Metro.
It may shock you to hear this, but on Metro’s opening day, Saturday, March 27th, 1976, all rides were free from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. Don’t expect to see that again.
Below is the Washington Post article from Friday, sharing the great news.
Washington’s first 4.6-mile Metro subway line will begin public operation Saturday with free rides for everybody from about 11 a.m. until 8 p.m.
Here’s the map printed in the newspaper that day showing the short run opening for public ridership.
The article continues below.
Officials of the transit authority said yesterday that they expected no problems that would delay the opening, although the 15 available two-car train units and related equipment still have some “bugs” that are being adjusted.
Car doors sometimes stick and there have been indications of electricial [sic] problems, but none of a major nature, official said.
Ralph L. Wood, chief of operations and maintenance, told the Metro board that “the brakes are awfully noisy” on some of the cars, but they pose no safety problem.
The line that will open Saturday runs from the Rhode Island Avenue station, near 8th Place NE, to the Farragut North station at Connecticut Avenue and L Street NW, three blocks north of the White House.
Operation on opening day will begin from the Rhode Island Avenue end of the line after a ceremony that will begin at 9 a.m.
The first train from there to Farragut North will carry Metro officials and invited guests, mostly current an former government officials. The second train, and all that follow, will carry the general public.
No fare will be collected on Saturday. There will be no service Sunday. Starting Monday, passengers will pay 55 cents during rush hours–6:30 to 9 a.m. and 3:30 to 6 p.m.–and 40 cents at other times.
…
Trains will pass without stopping at Gallery Place station, 7th and G Streets NW. Its use has been prohibited by a federal court order because of a finding that the transit authority delayed unreasonably in installing an elevator there for handicapped passengers.
Elevators are available at all other stations except Farragut North, where other legal problems are delaying installation. Nonhandicapped passengers will use escalators at all the stations.
Amazing! Remember the days when Metro was less than a dollar? Any GoDCers ride that second train, or know someone that did?
Years of digging up downtown
Opening day was the easy part. By the time Rhode Island Avenue station cut its ribbon in 1976, downtown DC had spent the better part of a decade buried under jackhammers, plywood barricades and detour signs.
The ceremony at Rhode Island Avenue
We also dug up some great photos from that morning courtesy of WMATA’s photographer Larry Levine.
The vault that defined the system
The look of the Washington Metro is the work of Chicago architect Harry Weese. His firm pitched a single station template for the whole underground system, a long coffered concrete vault with indirect lighting that throws shadows up into the waffle pattern overhead. Weese said the Roman Pantheon was on his mind. Fifty years on, the vault is still the thing you remember.
Before you go, check out this awesome 1976 promotional film from WMATA.
I wasn’t on the second train, but I did ride for free that day. The Farragut North station had a construction site surrounding it, instead of a building.
I also was not on the second train but rode free later that day. My family was lucky – we boarded at Union Station with little problem but I remember that the other stations – the end of the line – were very crowded, creating long waits to enter the stations.
Rode that day with my family. Wanted my 2 boys to have an experience that I’d waited for all my life! We waited >4 hours at Farragut North, got off at the end of the line, and waited another several hours to go back but it was worth it.I grew up at Dupont Circle.