Anyone who has had to walk up any of the escalators in the DC Metro Area would tell you that one of the stations definitely has the longest escalator they’ve experienced, but did you know that Wheaton Metro Station features the longest set of single-span escalators in the entire Western Hemisphere (video below)?
The escalator spans 230 feet, 18 feet longer than the second longest escalator on the Metro (Bethesda). Woodley Park and Medical Center are the only other two that come in longer than 200 feet with Rosslyn, both Dupont stations, and Tenleytown coming in after them.
While these are all long for the western hemisphere, the eastern hemisphere has 16 escalators longer than the one found at Wheaton Metro Station (Wheaton comes in tied for 17th in the world, Bethesda is 20th). According to MentalFloss, here are the Top 10 in the world:
- (Tie) Ploshchad Lenina Metro Station // St. Petersburg, Russia (453 feet)
- (Tie) Chernyshevskaya Metro Station // St. Petersburg, Russia (453 feet)
- (Tie) Admiralteyskaya Metro Station // St. Petersburg, Russia (453 feet)
- Kreschatik Metro Station // Kyiv, Ukraine (432 feet)
- Trampe // Trondheim, Norway (426 feet)
- Park Pobedy Metro Station // Moscow, Russia (416 feet)
- Sirkeci Metro Station // Istanbul, Turkey (~400 feet)
- Rustaveli Metro Station // Tbilisi, Georgia (394 feet)
- Huangguan Escalator // Chongqing, China (367 feet)
- Khatai Metro Station // Baku, Azerbaijan (328 feet)
How long does it take to ride the escalator down? Well that depends on how fast you’re moving, but if you were to step on and just enjoy the ride down without moving it would take exactly 2 minutes and 52 seconds, according to the video below by Mr. MoCo:
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