Friendship Heights is a

Washington Metro The Washington Metro (or simply Metro), formally the Metrorail,Google Books search/preview

station straddling the border of Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The station was opened on August 25, 1984, and is operated by the

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA ), commonly referred to as Metro, is a tri-jurisdictional government agency that operates transit service in the Washington metropolitan area. WMATA was created by the United States C ...

(WMATA).

Location

Providing service for the Red Line, the station is at the 5400 block of Wisconsin Avenue,

Northwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each s ...

and serves the neighborhoods of

Chevy Chase Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor and writer. He became a key cast member in the first season of '' Saturday Night Live'', where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment became a staple of the ...

and

Friendship Heights Friendship Heights is an urban commercial and residential neighborhood in northwest Washington, D.C. and southern Montgomery County, Maryland. Though its borders are not clearly defined, Friendship Heights consists roughly of the neighborhoods ...

. The area is a major retail shopping and broadcast media district. The station also serves as a bus depot linking Montgomery County Transit's Ride-On bus system with the Washington Metro. It is directly adjacent to the Western Division Metrobus garage on 44th Street and Harrison Street NW.

Notable places nearby

GEICO The Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO ) is a private American auto insurance company with headquarters in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It is the second largest auto insurer in the United States, after State Farm. GEICO is a wholly owne ...

Headquarters * Lisner-Louise-Dickson-Hurt Home *

Mazza Gallerie Mazza Gallerie was an upscale shopping mall in the Friendship Heights neighborhood of northwest Washington, D.C. Opened in 1977, it had of retail space on three levels, a parking garage, and a direct connection to the Friendship Heights station ...

The Shops at Wisconsin Place The Shops at Wisconsin Place is an open-air shopping center that is part of the mixed-use Wisconsin Place complex, located in Chevy Chase, Maryland, located on the site of a former Woodward & Lothrop department store, which was converted to Hecht ...

, Chevy Chase Pavilion, and other shopping centers * WSBN,

WMAL-FM WMAL-FM (105.9 MHz) – branded 105.9 FM WMAL – is a radio station licensed to Woodbridge, Virginia, serving the Washington, D.C. Metro area. WMAL-FM airs a talk radio format and is owned and operated by Cumulus Media. The station's st ...

, WLVW,

WTOP-FM WTOP-FM (103.5 FM) – branded ''WTOP Radio'' and ''WTOP News'' – is a commercial all-news radio station licensed to serve Washington, D.C. Owned by Hubbard Broadcasting, the station serves the Washington metropolitan area, extending its ...

, and

WFED WFED (1500 AM) is a 50,000-watt Class A radio station in the Washington, D.C. region. The station, which brands as Federal News Network, broadcasts a news talk format focused on issues and news pertaining to members and staff of the United S ...

radio stations

History

The station opened on August 25, 1984. Its opening coincided with the completion of of rail northwest of the Van Ness–UDC station and the opening of the Bethesda, Grosvenor, Medical Center and

Tenleytown Tenleytown is a historic neighborhood in Northwest, Washington, D.C. History In 1790, locals began calling the neighborhood "Tennally's Town" after area tavern owner John Tennally. Over time, the spelling has evolved and by the 19th century th ...

stations. To enable Metro to perform train turnarounds south of Grosvenor-Strathmore, a diamond crossover exists just north of the station. Occasionally, during rush hours (for schedule adjustments) or during track maintenance, trains terminate here. When this happens, trains offload their passengers on the Shady Grove-bound track, exit the station, switch direction just north of the interlocking, and then run through the interlocking to the Glenmont (towards downtown)-bound track.

Station layout

This station uses the four-coffer arch design found at most underground stations on the western side of the Red Line. Unlike its many counterparts such as Van Ness-UDC and Tenleytown-AU, the station's walls are more rounded. Friendship Heights is the only station in the system with this design that has mezzanines at both ends of the platform. The station is one of 11 stations in the system constructed with rock tunneling and is accordingly deeper than most stations in the system. Its platform is more than below its north entrance. The escalator has a length of and rises feet above the mezzanine level. The escalator ride from the common room at the north entrance to the mezzanine level takes roughly a minute and a half. Two of its five exits sit on the Maryland side of Western Avenue, whereas the other three exit into the District. At the Western Avenue entrance, four separate street entrances come together in an upper mezzanine, allowing riders to access a set of three escalators that go to the platform. One entrance is located at a side entrance to the lobby of an entrance to the C-level of

that has access to Western Avenue. Another entrance offers direct access to Chevy Chase Pavilion. The newest entrance, located off Wisconsin Avenue next to

, opened in 2011, replacing an earlier entrance that led directly into a

Hecht's Hecht's, also known as Hecht Brothers, Hecht Bros. and the Hecht Company, was a large chain of department stores that operated mainly in the mid-Atlantic and southern region of the United States. The firm originated in Baltimore, Maryland. By 20 ...

. The new entrance is located across Wisconsin Avenue from the station's main entrance, which surfaces in a large bus depot underneath the Chevy Chase Metro Building. A second entrance, at the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and Jenifer Street NW, is elevator-only, with four high-speed elevators servicing the station's south mezzanine.

References

External links

* * The Schumin Web Transit Center
Friendship Heights Station

Western Avenue entrance from Google Maps Street View

Jennifer Street entrance from Google Maps Street View
{{Washington Metro stations navbox 1984 establishments in Maryland 1984 establishments in Washington, D.C. Friendship Heights Friendship Village, Maryland Stations on the Red Line (Washington Metro) Railway stations in Montgomery County, Maryland Railway stations in the United States opened in 1984 Railway stations located underground in Maryland Railway stations located underground in Washington, D.C. Washington Metro stations in Maryland Washington Metro stations in Washington, D.C. Washington Metro stations located underground