The Popemobile is Coming!

From WJLA:

When Pope Benedict XVI visits Washington in April he will make two trips through Washington in his popemobile.

The Washington Archdiocese says the decision means people who can't get to the pope's Mass at the new Washington Nationals ballpark will be able to see him travel the streets in his specially-designed vehicle. The original itinerary did not call for the pope to make any public appearances other than the Mass, but the archdiocese says the Vatican has changed its mind.

The routes for the popemobile trips have not been finalized. The Mass is scheduled for April 17.

Metro Adding Cars?

From WMATA:

Metrorail Adding 24 Rail Cars

To accommodate higher ridership during Cherry Blossom activities, Metro is adding 24 rail cars to its weekday morning and afternoon peak service starting Monday, April 2. These 24 rail cars will allow Metro to initiate eight-car trains on the Red and Green lines and to expand eight-car train service on the Orange Line during the afternoon peak period. Metro will convert one four-car train to a six-car train on the Yellow Line, and convert two four-car Blue Line trains to six-car trains. These added cars will remain in service after the festival.

Don't get excited. They said we'd be rid of those four-car trains by last December.

There is, however, one important and fundamental piece of advice for anyone visiting the DC area:

Visitors should avoid traveling during the peak commuter periods from 5:30 to 9:30 a.m. and 3 to 7 p.m., and are strongly encouraged to avoid traveling Metrorail between 4 and 6 p.m. at the height of the afternoon peak period.

Metrorail doesn't have the capacity to handle commuters on a normal day, there certainly isn't room for tourists.

Capitol Visitor Center Delayed Yet Again

The Macaca Post reports on the latest delay:

When it's finished, the new Capitol Visitor Center will have nearly five acres of Pennsylvania sandstone on the walls, pink Tennessee marble on the floors and gray Virginia granite on the facade out front.

There will be handrails of cast bronze, wood paneling of rich, dark cherry and ceilings of fine plaster.

There will be skylights, fountains, granite columns, spiral staircases and a stone niche for the funeral platform that bore the body of Abraham Lincoln.

It will be grand, its creators say.

When it's finished.

Last month, the center's probable opening, already three years delayed, was pushed back again -- to summer 2008. And last week, a project official told Congress the schedule was undergoing further evaluation.

...

Decades in the making, the three-level, underground complex, adjacent to the Capitol's east front, will be the biggest expansion in the Capitol's history. It will also be one of the most striking, and controversial, tourist attractions in the country and much more than just a visitor center.

It probably will wind up costing about $600 million, government auditors believe -- more than double the initial $265 million budget projection from 1999 and just shy of the cost of Washington's new $611 million baseball stadium. Post-Sept. 11, 2001, security worries, as well as changes in design and content, have driven up the cost.

It will also be famous, at least at first, for the chronic delays that pushed its debut from 2005 to 2006 to 2007 to 2008, as the added work and hundreds of changes slowed the pace and clogged construction.

"A monument to government inefficiency, ineptitude and excessiveness," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), a longtime critic.

...

Damned and praised, construction on the Capitol Visitor Center is about 91 percent complete, officials said last week.

For more information, check out our report from last July: "Capitol Visitor Center Delayed Again" and January 2006's "The Capitol Visitor Center."

Did the Art of Monument Building Die in 1922?

In the Washington Post, Paul Richard complains that art of monument building in our nation's capital ended with the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in 1922. It's an interesting read, and more detailed than my own earlier observations on DC architecture.

Remember the Back Door

While visiting the Air & Space Museum today, I remembered important rule - don't enter Smithsonian museums through their Mall entrances.

They waived me right in, and then I was shocked by the giant lines coming in the other side of the building.