History
Plans for rapid transit prior to the creation of WMATA in February 1967 focused on the needs of commuters while neglecting some of the District's less affluent neighborhoods. Riots following the death of Martin Luther King in 1968 destroyed much of the commercial district around 14th and U Streets and planners hoped that adding a subway stop in that area would stimulate redevelopment. The original 1969 plan called for a line under 13th Street NW with just two stations. However, in 1970, the District of Columbia Council agreed to pay an additional $3 million to add a third station and reroute the Green Line under U Street, and then 14th Street NW. Instead of opening in 1976, the first Green Line stations, including U Street, opened in 1991.
Trains originally serviced this station as Yellow Line trains until Green Line service was formally introduced later that year. Yellow Line service resumed in late 2006 as part of what was initially an 18-month experiment to extend that line to Fort Totten station during non-rush hours and weekends.
On June 10, 2001, Metro Transit Police Officer Marlon C. Morales was killed in the line of duty at this station, while intervening in a fare dispute. A plaque exists outside the 13th Street entrance in his honor.
Read more about this topic: U Street (WMATA Station)
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—Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973)