DC’s Architecture Hates Airplanes

Just about everybody who knows me realizes pretty quickly that I’m a bit crazy. However, every group of people seems to find this out about me in different ways. My college friends were on to me that one evening I ran down to the bottom of the stairwell and started making dust angels. I’m guessing that my coworkers at my first internship were convinced in the third week when I sat down in the recycling bin to compress the papers. But my coworkers at my new job figured it out even more quickly than that, and it’s for reasons that those of us who aren’t from DC might think is a little odd. My boss almost immediately declared me crazy because I was planning to continue owning a car after I finished moving all my stuff.

I’m now a full 9 months into the job, and I’m still pleased with my decision to keep the car. Even after paying for parking, I find it totally worth it to be able to hop in my car and drive down to Richmond for the weekend or to jet off to visit a friend in suburban Virginia after work. I’m one of the staunchest supporters of public transit and bike usage that I know, but there are just some places – like large swaths of Richmond – that aren’t served well enough by transit and are simply too dangerous to bike to get by without one.

Looks like fun!

But a lot of people at work still don’t quite get it, and it’s after days like today that I come a bit closer to seeing things their way. Today, my car had its 120,000-mile service, and the list of fluids and filters that need to replaced in conjunction with a litany of components to inspect and clean or rotate or flush makes for a pretty substantial bill. However, I’ve got to say that the whole thing was a pretty pleasant experience, mainly because of the location of my dealer.

I first moved to DC needing a whole mess of services. I was way overdue on an oil change, and the car was leaking oil from a variety of places to boot. That was back when I didn’t really know anybody well enough to help me drop my car off, so I was very pleased to find that the nearest Subaru dealership happened to be within a block of the White Flint station on the Metro Red Line. That’d been my original plan for dropping the car off on Sunday, but the weather was JUST SO DARN NICE OUT that I had to try something different.

And that’s when I decided to ride my bike back from the dealer.

18 miles of awesome!

DC’s got a lot of great bike trails and paths, and one of the most notable ones is Beach Drive through Rock Creek Park. During the week, Beach Drive is a popular road for commuters because although it only has a 25 mph speed limit, it only has about a half-dozen traffic lights between Bethesda and downtown. However, on weekends the National Park Service shuts down the road to through vehicular traffic, and it becomes a haven for joggers and cyclists, and I just had to check it out.

"Welcome to Rock Creek Park: Reserved for non motor vehicles' use, 7am Saturday to 7pm Sunday"

Beach Drive is winding and convoluted, but it’s mostly flat and ridiculously scenic. In addition to many scenes of gentle cascades through mild gorges, Beach Drive also treats you to views of a number of DC landmarks, including the LDS Washington D.C. Temple.

Built in 1974, the Washington Temple rises 288’ from a hill just north of the Capitol Beltway. If you’ve ever taken I-495 around the north side of DC, chances are you’ve seen the building – it’s quite imposing.

From user IFCAR on Wikimedia Commons

But as I rode past the Washington Temple on Sunday, I was struck by one thought, and one thought alone: I bet that thing would look really aggressive from the sky.

From DOD Media Service

This isn’t an isolated case – most of the tallest buildings in DC would look pretty menacing to somebody in a parachute. In fact, 6 of the 7 tallest buildings are pointy, and #4 (Washington National Cathedral) and #7 (the gnarlily gothic Healy Hall at Georgetown) are located along the approach path to National Airport.

You can actually see DCA in this photo, about 1/4 from the left.
From user Patrickneil on Wikimedia Commons.

All in all, I imagine they make it pretty intimidating to be a pilot flying around the District. But none of those buildings hold a candle to the US Air Force Memorial, looming 270’ over I-395 near the Pentagon. It’s meant to evoke the "contrails of the Air Force Thunderbirds as they peel back in a precision 'bomb burst' maneuver”, but I just know in the back of my mind that it’s waiting to spear a wayward commercial airliner.

From user Blacknell on Flickr

And that’s why DC’s architecture secretly hates airplanes.