An Underground Atlas of the District of Columbia

June 30, 2018 6:39 PM

DC has many tunnels, only some of which are on fire. Using historical maps and the DC Public Library's newspaper archive, local history buff Elliot Carter will take you on a (ongoing) survey of the District's underground domain.

In addition to his day job, Carter is behind the excellent Architect of the Capital blog (no official relationship with the Architect of the Capitol) and serves as Atlas Obscura's “Chief DC Explorer”.

For the purposes of this project, tunnels are defined as "fully walkable passageways - no sewer pipes, culverts, or crawlspaces. All the tunnels depicted can accommodate standing adults - assuming they have proper access credentials."

Three parts are complete out of an intended ten-part series. The maps and text contain different content, so be sure to check out both.

posted by waninggibbon (12 comments total)

Wandering below the Library of Congress one day (get a LoC library card if you go!!!) I got half way down a long empty corridor with a guard sitting against the wall. He explained that I could not continue without correct credentials. We chatted for a moment and another tourist approached from the other direction (from the Capitol), he was not allowed to continue in my direction. Both random tourists and could walk the corridors but but would have to return outside and down the street to get across that invisible line. Seemed like an amazing use for our tax dollars to create a secure invisible line that did nothing.
posted by sammyo at 6:52 PM on June 30, 2018 [15 favorites]

Forgot to mention that the maps don't display well on mobile, so you ought to look at them on your desktop instead.
posted by waninggibbon at 6:59 PM on June 30, 2018

Wandering below the Library of Congress one day (get a LoC library card if you go!!!) I got half way down a long empty corridor with a guard sitting against the wall. He explained that I could not continue without correct credentials. We chatted for a moment and another tourist approached from the other direction (from the Capitol), he was not allowed to continue in my direction. Both random tourists and could walk the corridors but but would have to return outside and down the street to get across that invisible line. Seemed like an amazing use for our tax dollars to create a secure invisible line that did nothing.

You know, I've been meaning to get my visa to visit Ul Qoma.
posted by pykrete jungle at 10:31 PM on June 30, 2018 [3 favorites]

When I was a student a Georgetown University, it was rumored that there was a tunnel to Gaston Hall from the Capitol Building, to be used in the event of a catastrophic attack on the Capitol Building so that congress could still meet. I had friends who made it through service tunnels underneath Gaston as far as 100 yards outside the campus perimeter before getting stymied by dead ends and locked doors. But I have no doubt that DC hides similar secrets whether or not the Gaston-Capitol building connection actually exists.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:43 PM on June 30, 2018 [1 favorite]

Super cool! I grew up in the area but never knew about these. I'm really excited to read upcoming entries.

Also, I love the tunnels under the LOC. If I'm ever tired when I'm there, I like to take walks through the tunnels. There's a little cafe in one of them run by some really friendly Eritrean folks. I've only been once, but I bought a muffin. It felt very cyberpunk, or somewhat less like Kowloon Walled City, to be buying a pastry in a tunnel lit by flourescent lights, far away from the sunny day outside. I can't even remember where the cafe was, because those tunnels are somewhat baffling, but it was roughly under the Jefferson building. I think. One of the tunnels under the Madison building has a Subway and a Dunkin. I bought a donut at that Dunkin, with a receipt because I was expensing it (I thought of Mitch Hedberg).

In fact, now that I think about it, I think a lot of the DC government buildings I've been in had underground cafes and cafeterias. There's a cafeteria under the National Archives that I used to go to a lot.

Well, anyway, this was another episode of Shapes' Stories That Don't Really Go Anywhere.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 11:08 PM on June 30, 2018 [12 favorites]

Seemed like an amazing use for our tax dollars to create a secure invisible line that did nothing.

It keeps vampires corralled during the day. That’s worth a few tax dollars, especially since the guard is a revenant and has very low “living” costs. Are they teaching any necromancy in high school any more?
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:36 AM on July 1, 2018 [2 favorites]

Shapes: that’s at the intersection of the tunnels from the Jefferson, Adams, and Madison buildings, and LemLem is indeed great. She also owns an Eritrean restaurant over by Adams Morgan:

Keren Restaurant
posted by adamsc at 2:45 AM on July 1, 2018 [6 favorites]

Added to Favorites for the first sentence.
posted by tommasz at 6:50 AM on July 1, 2018 [1 favorite]

It keeps vampires corralled during the day. That’s worth a few tax dollars, especially since the guard is a revenant and has very low “living” costs.

As if. Vampires in the federal service have more important gigs.
posted by phearlez at 9:05 AM on July 1, 2018

If you want periodic reminders, Carter's been announcing new posts on the /r/washingtondc subreddit, which is where I came across the site. He says "Next up are street and highway tunnels, which will cap the transportation part of this project. After that we’re headed into interesting and obscure territory with liquids, utilities, and pedestrians!"
posted by waninggibbon at 10:39 AM on July 1, 2018

Oh man, those street tunnels. I’m not the most well-traveled, but I’ve never seen tunnels under traffic circles, or certainly not so many, outside DC. When I saw The Day The Earth Stood Still for the first time, I was like “hey, they’re in DuPont!” Because with those particular guard rails overlooking that particular ramp down to that tunnel, there was nowhere else they could have been.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 11:47 AM on July 1, 2018

Don’t be silly, everybody knows vampires don’t exist.
posted by snowmentality at 7:25 PM on July 1, 2018