Blue Line (Washington Metro)

The Blue Line is a rapid transit line of the Washington Metro system, consisting of 28 stations in Fairfax County, Alexandria and Arlington, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; and Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The Blue Line runs from Franconia–Springfield to Downtown Largo. The line shares track with the Orange Line for 13 stations, the Silver Line for 18, and the Yellow Line for six on the same segment and seven altogether. Only three stations (Franconia–Springfield, Van Dorn Street, and Arlington Cemetery) are exclusive to the Blue Line.

Trains run every 10 minutes during weekday rush hours, every 12 minutes during weekday off-peak hours and weekends, and every 15 minutes daily after 9:30pm.

Planning for Metro began with the Mass Transportation Survey in 1955, which attempted to forecast both freeway and mass transit systems sufficient to meet the needs of 1980. In 1959, the study's final report included two rapid transit lines that anticipated downtown Washington subways. Because the plan called for extensive freeway construction in Washington, D.C., alarmed residents lobbied for federal legislation creating a moratorium on freeway construction through July 1, 1962. The National Capital Transportation Agency's 1962 Transportation in the National Capital Region report anticipated much of the present Blue Line route in Virginia with the route following the railroad right-of-way inside Arlington and Alexandria to Springfield. It did not include a route in Prince George's County. The route continued in rapid transit plans until the formation of WMATA.

With the formation of WMATA in October 1966, planning of the system shifted from federal hands to a regional body with representatives of Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Congressional route approval was no longer a key consideration. Instead, routes had to serve each local suburban jurisdiction to assure that they would approve bond referendums to finance the system.

The Virginia portion of the Blue Line took much of its present form along the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad right-of-way to Colchester, as construction along existing right-of-way is the least expensive way to build into the suburbs. A surface-level section of the Blue Line that parallels Virginia State Route 110 where passing Arlington National Cemetery and traveling between The Pentagon and Rosslyn replaced a section of the closed Rosslyn Connecting Railroad, a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The railroad's predecessor, the Washington Southern Railway, constructed the section in 1896 within the grade of the old disused Alexandria Canal.

In March 1968, the WMATA board approved its 98-mile (158 km) Adopted Regional System (ARS), which included the Blue Line from Huntington to Addison Road, with a possible extension to Largo. The ARS contained a Blue Line/Orange Line station at Oklahoma Avenue between Stadium/Armory and the Anacostia River Bridge. Residents objected to a proposed 1,000-car commuter parking lot at that station and the traffic it would generate in the neighborhood. In reaction to their lobbying, the DC government insisted that the station be removed, and the tunnel for the line be extended through the neighborhood. This then made the line the only one to have a station canceled due to neighborhood opposition. To be constructed as an above ground station in the parking lot north of RFK Stadium near Oklahoma Avenue, the station was canceled saving Metro $12 million and the alignment of the line was shifted slightly to the east to address neighbor concerns. To better accommodate tourists, a Smithsonian station exit was added to the Mall, and the federal government requested in 1972 that the Arlington Cemetery station be added to the Blue Line. The federal government paid the cost of both design changes.

Service on the Blue Line began on July 1, 1977, on 18 stations between National Airport in Crystal City and Stadium–Armory in Washington, the first link of the Metro to Virginia. The line was extended by three stations to Addison Road on November 22, 1980. Service south of National Airport began on June 15, 1991, when Van Dorn Street opened. The original plan for the line was completed when this link was extended to Franconia–Springfield on June 29, 1997. Two new stations in Maryland – Morgan Boulevard and Largo Town Center (now Downtown Largo) – opened on December 18, 2004.

From its opening on November 20, 1978, until December 11, 1979, the Orange Line was co-aligned with the Blue Line from National Airport to Stadium-Armory, with the Orange Line continuing east from Stadium-Armory to New Carrollton. Beginning December 1, 1979, the Orange Line diverged westward from Rosslyn to Ballston–MU when that extension opened. The Blue and Orange Lines remain co-aligned from Rosslyn to Stadium-Armory and the Silver Line is co-signed along the same route as well.