Gateway to The Nation's Capital

Union Station stands near the Capitol, Senate office buildings, Library of Congress, and Supreme Court, making it a gateway to the heart of the nation's government and a place where official Washington meets the local city. Before air travel became common in the 1950s, enormous crowds gathered there to salute arriving presidents, watch protesters, and greet the Beatles when they disembarked for their first live American concert. Until the early 1950s, when most of downtown Washington's public accommodations were segregated, Union Station was one of the exceptions, and African American and white patrons could sit side by side in its dining room. Traffic peaked during World War II from 1941 to 1945, as throngs of military men and women passed through on the way to training camps and battlefronts, while civilians, especially young women, arrived to staff the war effort. As air travel expanded, the station declined in importance, but major renovations in the 1980s reconfigured its grand concourse for shops, restaurants, and entertainment. In the 1990s, this block gained the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building, named for the Howard University-trained lawyer whose strategies helped end legal segregation and who later became the first African American Supreme Court Justice.

Washington, District of Columbia · United States