Oct
3rd
Sat
3rd
Metro’s builders faced a challenge equal and opposite to that of their [oil] pipeline counterparts. The obstacles they faced were human — both physical artifacts and living opponents. As workers in Alaska built 800 miles of pipeline through wilderness all but uninhabited by humans, workers in Washington took up the challenge of pushing 100 miles of rapid transit through a long-settled region densely populated by lawyers.
— Zachary Schrag, on the history of the Washington Metro. On a personal note, my father worked on the construction Interstate 66 inside the Beltway, which includes the Orange Line, so that’s pretty much the 20th-century equivalent of saying my papa worked on the railroad (all the live-long day).
