Washington DC Question

[mcbj]

We will be in Maryland next week and will take the Metro into DC. We have been several times and are only planning to do the monuments and stroll around the mall, we got the tickets to go up into the Washington Monument.

My question is: how easy is it to get over to Arlington Cemetary? Would we take a different Metro? Cab? I don't think we can walk. We have always taken the Metro because I know parking is terrible, is it any better on a Sunday? Could we take a Metro back to Maryland from there, I believe we catch it in New Carolton.

How long would it take to get a little feel for Arlington, without a major tour, maybe just hit the Tomb of the Unknown, Kennedy gravesites?

Thanks!

 

[FireDancer]

It is very easy to take the metro to Arlington. Maps are available on their website. Arlington Cemetery is a stop on the Blue Line. If you are staying in Maryland you will most likely be taking the Red Line into DC. The station that allows you to transfer from the Red to the Blue Line is Metro Center. You would then take the Blue train towards Franconia-Springfield 5 stops (providing all stops are opened that day.

The metro in DC is great and very easy to understand.

 

[Ohiodislover]

We walked from Arlington to the Lincoln Memorial, and then down to the Washington Monument. Its a very long walk, but very nice one too (Of course we did that in early March--not in the summer heat). You go by The WW II memorial, reflecting pond, close to the Vietnam Memorial, and Lincoln. Then the bridge over the Potomic. You can see the parts of the bridge that they had to restore after the plane crash.

If your crunched on time, take the metro. As PP said--Its very easy. There are also tour trolley things that you can jump on/jump off at all the sites. Some just provide transportation, and point out a few things. Once you get to where you are going, you get off, tour and your own pace, and then catch one to where ever the are going next. You don't have to get off the trolley if you just want to go by and see the monuments, sites, etc.


Arlington is fairly quick--We walked from the front to Kennedy's grave, and to the tomb of the unknown (stayed a bit), and around a little more. Probably there for 1 1/2- 2 hours- give or take.

 

[Janet Hill]

New Carolton is on the Orange line. The Orange and Blue lines overlap for much of their routes (from Stadium Armory to Roselyn), so there are many stations where you could transfer to the Blue Line.

Arlington Cemetary does have a rather large parking lot and it's $1.75/hour for the first 3 hours and then $2.00/hour.

Sunday parking is actually not that bad in DC. The garages that are open usually charge a flat $5/day and getting street parking is usually easy to get as well.

 

[golfgal]

The problem we found was getting a metro stop close to the monuments. There is a metro stop just feet from the entrance to the Cemetery so that isn't an issue. If you can plan it so you are closer to the Washington Monument before you go to Arlington that would make it easier. I think a better option would be to take a bus over there.

We didn't do a tour of Arlington, we just walked around on our own. You can get a feel for the place as soon as you walk in and see the gravestones going on forever. The walk up to the Kennedy site and the tomb of the unknowns, if you don't stop at all along the way, only takes maybe 15 minutes.

We walked over to the monuments after. It is a mile or so away.