The Metrorail subway system arrived in Washington Saturday and the response was so overwhelming that prospective riders waited in lines for up to four hours to ride in trains that were often so overloaded that they refused to move because of the weight of the overcapacity crowds. – John Koppish, The Tower, Vol 54, Issue 22, (April 1, 1976)
March 27, 2026 marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Washington Metrorail system, with its first trains running between today’s Rhode Island Avenue and Farragut North stations. For half a century, Metro trains have been an integral part of the DC scene and campus experience at Catholic University. This very archivist lives a car-free life thanks to the reliability of the system and the presence of a station right next to campus. But it took a lot of work to get here…
We may not think about it, but the history of the Brookland neighborhood and CatholicU are intertwined with the history of transportation. After the founding of the University in 1887, the first two new buildings constructed on the campus focused on the educational mission of the school (Caldwell Hall) and the logistical need of getting distant students to the campus (University Station). The Brookland area was largely rural at that time, so transporting folks to the burgeoning campus was a challenge. Baltimore-based architect E. Francis Baldwin was tasked with designing both buildings – an appropriate task, given that Baldwin is known for his work on both train depots and Catholic churches. (Baldwin would also design McMahon Hall in 1895.)
With Caldwell Hall rising up in 1889, the local train depot opened near campus in 1890. University Station – located where the current Brookland-CUA Metro Station stands today – operated trains from the B&O Railroad between the 1890s and 1950s. The station would be razed to make room for the new Metro station.
In addition to trains, trolley cars also operated along today’s Michigan Avenue, providing students with access to the downtown core of the District.
But both the Brookland neighborhood and campus grew in the aftermath of World War II, the increasing need for more transit options emerged. In the postwar period, transportation infrastructure was primarily focused on expanding road access for personal cars. Coupled with the collapse of the DC bus and trolley system in the 1950s, the city seemed prime to invest in personal automotives as the solution to its long-term transportation issues. In that vein, DC was slated to have its own road system vastly expanded, with a large freeway planned through the Brookland neighborhood.
The DC freeway revolts emerged as grassroots opposition to the expansion of the freeway system throughout the District. In particular, organizations emerged such as the Emergency Committee on the Transportation Crisis (ECTC) to fight back against the use of eminent domain to cease individual houses for the road construction, particularly through predominantly Black neighborhoods. Issues around racial justice, environmental sustainability, and home rule were all tied in with the question of the District’s transportation future.
At the same time, the Johnson administration was forging ahead with plans to develop a subway system for the city. The freeway revolts provided extra fuel to light this cause, with the subsequent Nixon administration continuing in the development of today’s Metro. Catholic University’s leadership was thrilled by the prospect of having a future Metro station near campus, with plans to use the former University Station site as the location for a stop. With that said, however, the University faced the challenge of the proposed freeway system through its neighborhood.
With students and faculty in protest, the University came out against the freeway expansion in 1971. It helped that one of the proposed routes of the road would’ve taken the freeway along today’s Metro red line path, meaning cars would be speeding along constantly next to the then-new science buildings on campus.
If you walk out to John McCormack Drive today, you obviously do not see a freeway but a Metro line instead. So, after years of activism, the community efforts to stop the road plans were successful and Metro was built. With its grand brutalist architecture and expansion of the past several decades, Metro’s development and history is too rich to summarize in this simple blog post, so I’ll skip ahead. (Check out the sources below to learn more!)
This gets us back to that busy, busy opening day in 1976. While the Brookland Metro Station would not open until 1978, the campus was thrilled about the first trains to run in the system with bated breath for the eventual opening on our own local stop.
After years of construction – and debate over the name of the station – Brookland’s station would open on Feb. 6, 1978 – with the local student newspaper dedicating an entire special issue to the grand opening.
Today, the Metro remains an essential part of life in the broader DC area. Whether you love the system or sometimes get frustrated with delays – I’m guilty of both – CatholicU would not be the same without its train operators announcing the arrival at the Brookland-Catholic University station. So a happy golden anniversary to our beloved local system!
Learn more:
Schrag, Zachary. The Great Society Subway: A History of the Washington Metro. Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.
“50 Years of DC’s Iconic Metro.” Washingtonian, March 11, 2026. https://washingtonian.com/2026/03/11/dc-metro-rail-wmata-history/
“Milestones & History.” WMATA, 2026. https://www.wmata.com/about/history/