I Have Finally Counted Rosslyn's Metro Steps

Thanks to the Metro escalator gods and perhaps buoyed by a mention in the Post's online Express edition (thanks to From DC to Jerusalem for pointing it out), it finally happened for me. As I approached the Rosslyn station's down escalators this morning, the middle stairway was completely empty...and not moving! As the ever intrepid explorer, I began my stepdown, counting the whole way, and realizing that my elementary school teachers were right when they told me one day I'd need to know how to count above 100. The first 10 steps in my counting may have been a little off as I tried to control my giddyness and went from the flat steps to descending steps, but I quickly recovered and was on my way.

As if fighting the Friday 5 PM crowds wasn't hard enough.

Counting on the even step, I had no trouble until steps 40-42-44 when I started counting too quickly. Nevertheless, I pressed on because I'm tough like that and finished with a total step count of....drum roll please....158! Of course this is +/- 5 for miscounting, to cover myself until someone else gets stepping, and because it's tricky counting the flat (non-descending) steps. If I wasn't pressed to get to work on time, I would have rode up the working escalator and walked down again to give myself another counting. And no, I wasn't about to walk up the escalator before work because I'd rather not break a sweat and deal with that all day at my desk. Considering my first Rosslyn stair count, it's safe to say it's equal to the Washington Post's Express count of the Woodley Park/Adams Morgan stairwell at 160 steps.

If you want to join the Super Terrific Escalator People Sessions (STEPS), you should start by studying how it works.

Technically, there are more stairs to consider at Rosslyn because of the escalators that take you to orange and blue line trains headed toward Vienna/Fairfax-GMU and Franconia-Springfield. They've been working well the last few weeks so another counting session is in order. You should know that I'm not addicted to counting escalator steps or have some weird staircounting hobby, but it's hard not to think about it when you walk up them everyday. By the way, today's celebrity lookalikes included Rene Russo (but I couldn't see how close she was to Rene's obnoxious tooth to gum ratio) and a 200 lbs lighter William "Refridgerator" Perry. Imagine that kid.