The Great Society Subway: A History of the Washington Metro (Creating the North American Landscape)

Description

Drivers in the nation's capital face a host of hazards: high-speed traffic circles, presidential motorcades, jaywalking tourists, and bewildering signs that send unsuspecting motorists from the Lincoln Memorial into suburban Virginia in less than two minutes. And parking? Don't bet on it unless you're in the fast lane of the Capital Beltway during rush hour.

Little wonder, then, that so many residents and visitors rely on the Washington Metro, the 106-mile rapid transit system that serves the District of Columbia and its inner suburbs. In the first comprehensive history of the Metro, Zachary M. Schrag tells the story of the Great Society Subway from its earliest rumblings to the present day, from Arlington to College Park, Eisenhower to Marion Barry.

Unlike the pre--World War II rail systems of New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia, the Metro was built at a time when most American families already owned cars, and when most American cities had dedicated themselves to freeways, not subways. Why did the nation's capital take a different path? What were the consequences of that decision?

Using extensive archival research as well as oral history, Schrag argues that the Metro can be understood only in the political context from which it was born: the Great Society liberalism of the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations. The Metro emerged from a period when Americans believed in public investments suited to the grandeur and dignity of the world's richest nation. The Metro was built not merely to move commuters, but in the words of Lyndon Johnson, to create "a place where the city of man serves not only the needs of the body and the demands of commerce but the desire for beauty and the hunger for community."

Schrag scrutinizes the project from its earliest days, including general planning, routes, station architecture, funding decisions, land-use impacts, and the behavior of Metro riders. The story of the Great Society Subway sheds light on the development of metropolitan Washington, postwar urban policy, and the promises and limits of rail transit in American cities.

Disclaimer:
Contents of this page are indexed from this page for search purpose only. All actions are under your responsability. Email us to report illegal contents or external links and we'll remove them immediately.

Please check the description for download links if any or do a search to find alternative books.

Can't Download?
Please search mirrors if you can't find download links for "The Great Society Subway: A History of the Washington Metro (Creating the North American Landscape)" in "Description" and someone else may update the links. Check the comments when back to find any updates.

Search Mirrors
Maybe some mirror pages will be helpful, search this book at top of this page or click here to find more info.

1. Ebooks list page : 3053
2. The Great Society Subway: A History of the Washington Metro (Creating the North American Landscape)
3. The Great Society Subway: A History of the Washington Metro
4. Across This Land: A Regional Geography of the United States and Canada (Creating the North American Landscape)
5. George Washington (Great American Presidents)
6. Shapers of the Great Debate on the Great Society: A Biographical Dictionary (Shapers of the Great American Debates)
7. Landscape, Memory And History: Anthropological Perspectives (Anthropology, Culture and Society)
8. Clambake: A History and Celebration of an American Tradition (Publications of the American Folklore Society New Series)
9. Encyclopedia of North American Indians: Native American History, Culture, and Life From Paleo-Indians to the Present
10. Reporting from Washington: The History of the Washington Press Corps
11. A Bibliographic Guide to North American Industry: History, Health, and Hazardous Waste
12. Interpreting the Landscape: Landscape, Archaeology and Local History
13. No Duty to Retreat: Violence and Values in American History and Society
14. Great Debates in American Environmental History, Volume 2
15. Great Debates in American Environmental History, Volume 1
16. The American Stage and the Great Depression: A Cultural History of the Grotesque