Just like any large city worth its salt, Washington DC has a serie of fast speed, mass transit underground trains referred to as the DC Metro. These trains will take a passenger to many of the more interesting areas of the DC metro area and back again, unless one needs to go to a useful place such as Dulles Airport, or the large buisness/shopping district of Tyson's Corners.

There are five lines to the metro, designated by colors: Blue, Green, Red, Yellow, and Orange. For a minimum fare of over one american dollar, you too can be sped around the District while trying to figure out where you should have transferred to the Yellow Line, and why the hell you are now in the state of Maryland.

Metro Center

At the intersection of the Blue, Orange, and Red north of the National Mall lies one of the largest stations on the Metro line. Built on two levels underground, and with a department store connected right into it, this is where all innovations on the Metro line start, such as newer and fancier cards. As long as you don't mind coming BACK to Metro Center to upgrade them while waiting for the technology to spread around the system. This station is also the home of the prestigious Metro gift store, where you can buy t-shirts, mouse pads, mugs, and just about anything else they can slap the Metro map on. Just don't expect to be able to take the mug onto the trains, as no food or drinks are allowed.

Federal Triangle and Smithsonian Stations

The next two stations southbound out of Metro Center on the Blue/Orange line, these are on the north and south sides of the National Mall, and perhaps see more traffic than any other station, especially during large events such as the Fourth of July, and the rolling in of a new Milennium. If you are planning to great the 4th milennium on the Mall, it would be best to be patient, or be willing to hike a bit to a station of one of the other three colors.

Pentagon Station

It is unknown who decided that the best place to create a transfer point between the Blue and Yellow lines would be under the largest office building in the world, and the hub of the US Military. As it stands, though, this station offers an interesting mixture of life as Military officers, civilian military employees, and generic civilians mill about waiting for the next train. Oddly, this is the only station in the metro system with a signal displaying the color of the next train approaching the station.

The Yellow Line

This is the appendix of the Washington DC Metro system. One has to look hard to find a Yellow Line station, as most of them are Blue/Yellow or Green/Yellow. In fact there are only two stations that are purely Yellow Line, both just a stone's throw south of King's Street where the line combines with the Blue line. At the Pentagon it then splits, goes under the Potomac, and meets up with the Green Line at L'Enfant Plaza. From there it meanders north about a mile before stopping in the middle of the District, as though realizing how futile and laughable its presence is.