Zoo stop? No? Dupont Circle stop? No? physically disabled? No?

SHUT. UP.

Escalator temporarily stairs. Sorry for the convenience.

Did you guys RTFA? Apparently not.

Huffing and puffing, they neared the top, Murphy recalled, only to be horrified at the obstacle that lay ahead.

"Imagine our shock to find a giant HOLE where several steps should have been!" Murphy wrote in an e-mail.

Gaping in front of him was a 4- or 5-foot-long gap where several escalator steps normally would have been at the top of the conveyance.

Sid_6.7: Did you guys RTFA?

Yes. But I will not allow facts to interfere with a Mitch Hedberg reference.

thisdaydreamer: Zoo stop? No? Dupont Circle stop? No?

Don't forget Rosslyn.

Why the fark didn't they turn around and go back down? Obviously that escalator was not meant to be used and they should have taken another way up. Granted, there should have been a blockade there so no one went up that way, but christ, it's not difficult to turn around and walk back down and find another way up.

Murphy, 51, arrived on a train from his job downtown with the American Sociological Association about 4:10 p.m. and found that two of the three escalators at the Tenleytown exit were out of service. The only functioning escalator was carrying customers down...

"When my life and well-being are foolishly endangered or threatened, then I become concerned and determined to do something," he wrote in the e-mail.

Certainly there should have been a barricade and a sign preventing people from going up that escalator, but "my life and well-being are foolishly endangered" is pretty farking melodramatic when turning around and going up the other broken escalator was an alternative to doing a high wire act on greased rods across a crevasse.

The escalator at the NIH/Medical Center was out a few days ago. That was a much farther climb than I had anticipated. Many people stopping for oxygen half way up.

Eddy Gurge: thisdaydreamer: Zoo stop? No? Dupont Circle stop? No?

Don't forget Rosslyn.

*adds that to the dreaded list*

Silvara: Why the fark didn't they turn around and go back down? Obviously that escalator was not meant to be used and they should have taken another way up. Granted, there should have been a blockade there so no one went up that way, but christ, it's not difficult to turn around and walk back down and find another way up.

This is America, dammit! We WILL persevere! Even in the face of 4-5 long gaps!

Should've brought some Sherpas.

The Washington Post

Hot Topics: Don't touch my junk

Awesome.

"We worked out a system where you put two hands on the handrail, and then tried to get a footing and made it from one rod to the next," Murphy recalled on Friday by phone. . . . Another climber, a woman of about 35, nearly fell into the hole. Murphy also nearly slipped in but gripped the handrail in a last-minute surge of strength and managed to make it over.

Sounds like a scene from Cliffhanger.

"An escalator can never break: it can only become stairs. You would never see an Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order sign, just Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience."

Eddy Gurge: thisdaydreamer: Zoo stop? No? Dupont Circle stop? No?

Don't forget Rosslyn.

I'm from New York and even I know that one. Yikes.

You know how I know most of you didn't RTFA??

Talon: thisdaydreamer: Dupont Circle stop?

Is that the one where the escalator ride alone takes like 2 minutes because it's just that damned long?

Walking up an escalator I have no problem with... it's walking down. The steps on those things are huge, and with the lines in them making something of an optical illusions... I feel like I've got vertigo when trying to walk down. I'd prefer regular stairs over an escalator-temporarily-stairs any day.

I have a horrible fear of heights and the ones at DuPont were broken the other day. I was practically crawling down them because it was so freaking disorientating.

The Washington D.C. metro system has the longest escalators in the western world. It also has more escalators than any subway system in the world. When they are out it's a big deal.

From Wikipedia:
The longest set of single-span uninterrupted escalators in the Western Hemisphere is at the Wheaton station of the Washington Metro system. They are 230 feet (70 m) long with a vertical rise of 115 feet (35 m), and take what is variously described as 2 minutes and 45 seconds[citation needed] or nearly three-and-a-half minutes, to ascend or descend without walking.

This pic is from the Dupont Circle station. Another long one you don't want to be walking up after a long hard day at work.

kronicfeld: Sid_6.7: Did you guys RTFA?

Yes. But I will not allow facts to interfere with a Mitch Hedberg reference.

And I thank you for that.

FTFA: "We worked out a system where you put two hands on the handrail, and then tried to get a footing and made it from one rod to the next," Murphy recalled on Friday by phone.

So there I was walking along, minding my own business and BAM! WALL!

I nearly knocked myself out on that wall. Someone should put up a sign over there saying "Warning: Wall"

And over there
And over there
And over there
And there should really be a floor sign down there...

Coming this summer....

"We worked out a system where you put two hands on the handrail, and then tried to get a footing and made it from one rod to the next,"

One small group of people, stranded in a subway tunnel, with only one exit...

"Be careful! They are slippery!" a climber ahead of him, a middle-aged businessman in a suit and tie, called back to Murphy.


Striving against all odds to escape their imminent death, must overcome their fears in order to survive...

Another climber, a woman of about 35, nearly fell into the hole. Murphy also nearly slipped in but gripped the handrail in a last-minute surge of strength and managed to make it over.

If they want to live, they must climb...

the Stairway to Heaven.

/explosion