🚀 go-pugleaf

msb@sq.com (Mark Brader) wrote:


>What really makes Washington's stations look "cavernous" is that they
>generally have a single roof arch spanning both tracks and their
>platforms, like Paris but with larger stations than Paris.  New York,
>like Toronto, generally has separate roof segments over each track.
>But again, it isn't actually obvious which way is cheaper -- there
>are tradeoffs involved.

I can't measure this, but a rough comparison suggests to me that it's
not just the single-span arch that is responsible for the Washington
Metro's cavernous feel -- it's also because they're further below
ground than those in Toronto, Philly, Boston or NYC.

The Market Street subway here, for instance, runs (at 2d and 13th
Streets) at the basement level of buildings along the street; at its
deepest (not counting the under-the-river tunnel), it is one-half
level below the basement.

The Red Line platforms at Metro Center (which is located in one of the
cut-and-cover segments of the Metro) are two levels below the
basements of the buildings along G Street; the entrance mezzanines --
which in older systems were placed on entirely separate floors,
another factor that adds to the spaciousness of the Metro stations --
are one level below.

____________________________________________________________________________

Sandy Smith, Exile on Market Street, Philadelphia     smiths@pobox.upenn.edu
Univ of Pennsylvania, News and Public Affairs  215.898.1423/fax 215.898.1203
I speak for myself here, not Penn            http://pobox.upenn.edu/~smiths/

"How can a city that loves the Mummers Parade hate gays?"
--------headline for Steve Lopez's column, _Philadelphia Inquirer_ 6/20/96--