Columbus Circle, also known as Union Station Plaza or Columbus Plaza, is a

traffic circle A roundabout, a rotary and a traffic circle are types of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junct ...

at the intersection of Delaware, Louisiana and Massachusetts Avenues and E and First Streets,

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A '' compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—eac ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

It is located in front of

Union Station A union station, union terminal, joint station, or joint-use station is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway company, railway companies, allowing passengers to connect conveniently bet ...

right next to the grounds of the

United States Capitol The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the Seat of government, seat of the United States Congress, the United States Congress, legislative branch of the Federal government of the United States, federal g ...

and its access roads interrupt this circle on one side, forming an arc. The

Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building The Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building (TMFJB) at the crossroads of the Capitol Hill and NoMa, NoMA neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., houses offices that support the work of the United States federal courts, United States Courts, incl ...

is located on the eastern side and the

National Postal Museum The National Postal Museum, located in Washington, D.C., is the primary postal museum of the United States. It covers large portions of the postal history of the United States and other countries. It was established through joint agreement be ...

is on the western side of the plaza next to Union Station. Both buildings are on the northern side of Massachusetts Avenue NE.

History

In 1907, Union Station opened on the site of what was once a poor Irish neighborhood called Swampoodle. Most of the land around it had been leveled and all the houses razed. The area in front of the Station originally was called ''Union Station Plaza'' or the ''Plaza of Union Station''.''Street Railway Connections to Plaza of Union Station'' - The Washington Herald, Real Estate and Building Section - January 31, 1909 - Third Part, page 1 The plaza was put through a massive renovation between 2011 and 2013. File:Union Station Washington, D.C. 1906.tif, The Circle the Congressional appropriation leading to the Columbus Fountain (1906) File:Union Station Washington DC from the air.png, Columbus Circle with the fountain from the air in the 1920s File:Columbus_Fountain_(Smithsonian).jpg, The Columbus Fountain in 1919

Structures

The centerpiece of the circle is the Columbus Fountain, flanked by three flagpoles, designed by

Daniel Burnham Daniel Hudson Burnham (September 4, 1846 – June 1, 1912) was an American architect and urban designer. A proponent of the ''Beaux-Arts architecture, Beaux-Arts'' movement, he may have been "the most successful power broker the American archi ...

and sculpted by

Lorado Taft Lorado Zadok Taft (April 29, 1860 – October 30, 1936) was an American sculptor, writer and educator. Part of the American Renaissance movement, his monumental pieces include, ''Fountain of Time'', ''Spirit of the Great Lakes'', and ''The ...

. It was unveiled on June 8, 1912 in a three-day celebration involving tens of thousands of people (including the US Army, Navy and Marines) and several dignitaries including President

William H. Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) served as the 27th president of the United States from 1909 to 1913 and the tenth chief justice of the United States from 1921 to 1930. He is the only person to have held both offices. ...

and the Italian Ambassador to the United States. Parades, concerts and fireworks drow citizens of the city and many Knights of Columbus from around the country. It was not part of the original design of the Circle or of Union Station. This is when the plaza started to be called ''Columbus Circle'' due to the monument present in its center. Two small fountains on each side of the Columbus Fountain frame the circle along with several stone balustrades. These fountains are accessible by the two staircases located on both sides of the central fountain. The circle is ringed by flags of each of the 50 U.S. states in order of admission to the Union plus the flags of the U.S. territories and the District of Columbia. The flag poles are located on the southern side of the road.

Access

Columbus Circle being located in front of Union Station is very accessible with various means of transportation. Two streetcars lines used to circle on Columbus sharing tracks: the Capitol Traction Company and the Washington Railway & Electric Company. The Capitol Traction Company went down New Jersey Avenue NW, turning on Massachusetts Avenue NW and exiting on the opposite side of the Circle to F Street NE. Today the

streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...

stops on the opposite side of the station. Cars were always present but the traffic patterns changed over the years. In the early days, cars could park around the plaza. As cars started taking over, other alternatives had to be found and parking on or near the plaza was no longer possible. Union Station struggled with parking until the 1980s when a parking lot was built on the back of station. Today, cars can drive around the circle to continue on Massachusetts Avenue but parking or stopping is forbidden. Cars can drive between the station and the Columbus Fountain on two access roads but they can only drop off or pickup passengers from the station. Today, Columbus Plaza is mainly pedestrian with large walkways and several crosswalks providing access. On the station side, the crosswalk do not have lights due to the low speed of vehicles but on Southside, traffic lights offer a safer access for pedestrians. A

Capital Bikeshare Capital Bikeshare (also abbreviated CaBi) is a bicycle-sharing system that serves Washington, D.C., and certain counties of the Washington metropolitan area, larger metropolitan area. it had 700+ stations and more than 5,400 bicycles. The memb ...

station is located on the side of Union Station off of F Street NE. Bike racks are available in front of Union Station and in 2009, DDOT announced the construction of the Bikestation on the west side of Union Station right off the plaza where the bike lane ends.

References

External links

*http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=8442 {{Authority control Capitol Hill Massachusetts Avenue (Washington, D.C.) Northeast (Washington, D.C.) Squares, plazas, and circles in Washington, D.C.