I’ve been to Washington D.C. before and have ridden the Metro to Bethesda. That escalator there was incredibly long…I had to ride it up and down a couple of times just to say I did. (it took me 2.5 min to go up).
I’ve heard there are other escalators at other stations that are much longer. I’d like to find the longest one while I’m there. Any ideas on which station has the longest escalator?
Sigene (while others party…I ride escalators)
As a former red line passenger, I’ve heard that the Bethesda stop *is * the longest one. I’ll see if I can verify this.
But yeah, it’s one long ride. I had to get on it with my mom who is afraid of heights and she was not a happy camper.
The escalator at the Wheaton station, at 230 ft (70 m) is the longest in the Western Hemisphere.
The Central-Mid-Levels escalator in Hong Kong clobbers the competition, at 800 meters!
I love that escalator. Only been on it the one time, though. I’m not sure I’ll take my height-sensitive mother on it when they’re here this Christmas, though.
Cite? Just eyeballing it, I would have thought the Dupont Circle escalator was the longest, though my eyeballs don’t always work that good.
Google “wheaton longest escalator,” and you’ll get more cites than you can shake a stick at.
I couldn’t agree more, but it’s a series of escalators. I live right next to it. Great NYT article on it here…
Coolest escalator on earth.
Back to DC… I always thought the escalators at Arlington and Dupont Circle were pretty impressive. Gave me vertigo looking down from the top. I’ll check out the others when I can.
Which station in Arlington? Rosslyn?
When good ol’ Mom saw it, she freaked. If we’d thought about it, we could have taken an elevator to the surface. But we’d already come through the gates and used our pass cards.
Thanks, Earlyout for the Straight Dope. I knew I’d been on the longest one, just couldn’t remember the station. Never had much reason to get off the train between Rockville and DC.
In a slight Hijack, I must trumpet the virtues of the DC Metro system. As a suburbanite, I could get on a county transit bus that stopped about 30 yards from my house, transfer to the Metrorail in Rockville, and get off at the Friendship Heights station. Since my Dad worked in the building on top of that station, I never had to worry about rain for the entire trip once I was on the first bus. I’m sure my Dad appreciated it even more.
If you want a bigger thrill, I would say that, for whatever reason, the Dupont metro escalator sets the combined record for the longest escalator that is most often out of service. I have had to climb that one a few times without any mechanical aid, and I got my exercise for the week.
Better questions would be: What is the longest single flight escalator? or What is the longest series of escalators with only short breaks and no moving walkways?
The one by the zoo in DC is really friggin long.
can you convert that to feet or meters?
Wheaton Station is above ground. It’s escalator is puny.
If you click the “Metro facts” link on this page, a PDF file will open with 5 pages of stuff about the D.C. Metrorail and Metrobus systems (including backup to Early Out’s claim about the Wheaton escalator). 
Here’s a photograph of the Wheaton Metrorail station. Sure looks like it’s underground, to me! Haven’t found a photo of the escalator itself, alas, but there are dozens upon dozens of references to it as the longest in the Western Hemisphere.
Ah, here it is!
According to this site, there’s various escalators in eastern Europe and Russia of 100m lenghts, but still no word on the longest.
(This all makes London’s longest seem rather pathetic, at 58m.)
I’ve been on the metros in DC and Moscow. Moscow has some escalators that make DC look positively wimpy.
The Ligovsky Prospekt Metro Stop escalator in Saint Petersburg Russia sure was long too.
