March 27, 1976
The first 4.6 miles (7.4 kilometers) of the Washington Metro were officially opened just over six years after construction on this rapid transit system had begun. “The nation’s capital got a subway Saturday,” announced a subsequent Associated Press news article, “an itty-bitty one by most metropolitan standards, but a subway nonetheless.”
This original stretch of track for the Washington Metro was built on the system’s Red Line and served a total of five stations between Rhode Island Avenue in northeast Washington, D.C., and Farragut North in the northwestern part of the city. (The attached postcard of Rhode Island Avenue Station was created in 1976.) For the big opening day, passengers were allowed to ride on the Washington Metro free of charge. Officials expected about 10,000 people to take advantage of that opportunity, but an estimated 40,000 showed up instead.
United Press International (UPI) reported, “Lines stretched from the Rhode Island Ave. station for more than two blocks as the curious took advantage of free rides on the first phase of what is to be a 100-mile [161-kilometer] network of rails from downtown out into the Maryland and Virginia suburbs.” This UPI article further stated, “So many persons queued up for free rides and created such a bottleneck that Metro officials asked that others wait a few hours before showing up at one of the five stations for a ride.”
The day’s festivities also featured a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The public dignitaries taking part in this ceremony included Walter E. Washington (1915-2003), mayor of the District of Columbia; Marvin Mandel (1920-2015), governor of Maryland; Wayne A. Whitham (1924-1984), Virginia’s secretary of transportation and public safety; and Sterling Tucker (1923-2019), chairman of both the Washington Metro Board and the Council of the District of Columbia.
In the time since its debut, the Washington Metro has expanded within Washington, D.C., and into both Maryland and Virginia. This system, which is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), now encompasses a total of six lines, 98 stations, and 129 miles (208 kilometers) of track.
Image Credit: Public Domain
For more information on the history of the Washington Metro, please check out https://www.wmata.com/about/history/upload/history.pdf
Transportation History 
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