Union Station and Plaza
- Architect
- Daniel Burnham
- Year
- 1908
- Style
- Beaux-Arts
- City
- Washington, DC
- Collection
- the city beautiful
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Washington Union Station opened in 1907, designed by Daniel Burnham in the Beaux-Arts style as a City Beautiful set piece for the nation's capital. It is Amtrak's second-busiest station and North America's 13th-busiest railroad station, serving as the southern terminus of the Northeast Corridor, the busiest passenger rail line in the country. At its wartime peak during World War II, as many as 200,000 passengers passed through in a single day, and a 1988 renovation added a headhouse wing and converted part of the station into a shopping mall.
the building
Northeast Corridor terminus. Union Station is the southern terminus of the Northeast Corridor, the electrified rail line running north through Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, and the busiest passenger rail line in the United States.
Wartime peak. During World War II, Union Station handled as many as 200,000 passengers in a single day, its highest traffic point in the station's history.
1988 shopping mall renovation. In 1988 a new headhouse wing was added and the original station renovated for use as a shopping mall, transforming Union Station into one of the busiest combined rail and retail destinations in the country, drawing over 40 million visitors a year as of 2014.
the style
Daniel Burnham designed Union Station in the Beaux-Arts style, giving Washington a grand, monumental gateway building in keeping with the City Beautiful ideals Burnham championed elsewhere in his career.
More on Beaux-Artsthe architect
Daniel Burnham designed Union Station, which opened in 1907.
significance
Union Station is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is a DC Historic Landmark (#L_0482), and has been designated a National Treasure. It remains an intermodal hub serving Amtrak, MARC and VRE commuter rail, the Washington Metro, and intercity and local buses, carrying the IATA airport code ZWU.
nearby
- Postal Square Building
- Senate Office Building (Russell Senate Office Building)
- Saint Aloysius Catholic Church
- Sewall-Belmont House (Nat'l Woman's Party Headquarters)
- Hiram W. Johnson House
- Supreme Court