Washington D.C.'s Secret Government Subway System Explained | The Senate Subway
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- Discover the fascinating history behind Washington, D.C.’s forgotten Senate subway, a secretive underground rail system connecting the U.S. Capitol to nearby Senate office buildings. Built over a century ago to streamline travel for senators, this hidden subway system reflects a bygone era of innovation, convenience, and exclusivity in the heart of American government. From its early days as an open-air electric trolley to today’s high-tech, underground cars, the Senate subway has remained a little-known part of Capitol Hill’s infrastructure. Join us as we uncover why this unique subway was built, how it’s evolved, and why it’s still used by senators today-though rarely seen by the public.
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Some images may be used for illustrative purposes only - always reflecting the accurate time frame and content. Events of factual error / mispronounced word/spelling mistakes - retractions will be published in this section.
hahaha I love the article headline at 5:23 "Lawmakers expect to easily avoid constituents..." Some things never change..
They use it to get insider stock tips and numerous kickbacks.
Small wonder they think they are above us when they are actually below us.
These days they just call it interview avoidance…. cough cough kamala.
The only subway on the East Coast that is clean and comes on time I'll bet.
Are you kidding, it's govt workers.... They're paid to be late 😂
Still full of criminals though
From personal experience it doesn't really have a schedule and moves extremely slow. I usually just walked the route. Its only like 250m or so.
@@boatyboatyyI’ve been in the tunnels but never seen the subway system. Walking from building to building wasn’t hard at all.
@@charleskavoukjian3441 only certain buildings have them and they are direct to the capitol building. The tunnels between office buildings don't usually have them but if i remember right the house office buildings had stops like a subway. Idk its been like 4 years and i only worked in the senate.
Love how the government can have public transit for a few of their office buildings but cities of over a million in the us hardly have busses…
The only thing US politicians are supremely adept at doing are giving themselves pay raises, perqs, and exempting themselves from laws.
That's because they don't want to be out in public because of the things they vote for
@@noahguerra8847 The senate subway is not really comparable to any cities public transport system. It would likely be the responsibility of the state government to provide public transport in their cities and not the federal government.
It's because we send our tax dollars overseas to "nationbuild" infrastructure in other countries
@@noahguerra8847 hardly anyplace that it’s feasible vastmajority of the country is rural
I actually toured this subway...Well, it was in Fallout 3, but still...
Dammit! I really should try to finish that game, because I did not know this... But ugggghhh... Frickin Preston, and all his "tasks." Like, dude, go defend a settlement yourself once and awhile.
@@roberthoople those are two different games lol
@@static_bolt ha. I should stay off the internet when I'm tired.
@@static_bolt These Fallout games are really confusing. I don't understand why the developers change the game genre to action-RPG in parts 3 and 4... The first two parts (and Fallout: Ultimate carnage) were my favorite racing games! I loved the explosions and destruction of cars. But what I loved most were the stunts where you had to launch the driver from the windshield into the target to earn points.
@@vmdpt That's just flat out weird. Makes no sense.
I rode this tram with Senator Boozman of Arkansas in 2013, had a whole tour it was amazing! Thanks for this wonderful video!
yeah he says its secret and off limits but is usually in the tours you can schedule for free
@boatyboatyy I'm unsure to be honest, I didn't go for the tour we were there on business. Didn't notice anyone but staff and our party, security was tight
I know there's 3 underground lines, the public has as access to at least one of those lines.
Boozman?
What a name, I hope he lives up to it😂
@@MrRyan-fd9rd I remember it as "bozeman" had to look it up, but fr 😂
@@BrassandPowder I’m sure you’re correct, now that you pointed that out😆
Good day to you brother.
About 10 years ago one of my coworkers was neighbors with the head of the Capitol Police Department, and he was able to arrange a tour of the Capitol building for some colleagues. I brought my oldest son along, who was learning US History at the time in school. This wasn't a typical public tour, we were taken to a lot of areas that are usually off limits to the general public or normal tours. The subway was one of the things we were able to tour. The other interesting thing we got to see and sit in that isn't as well known are the marble Senate Bathtubs in boiler rooms.
So if the Senators misbehave they're taken to the boiler room and steamed a little? 😮
@@stevengill1736 sadly no haha.. these tubs date back to the mid 1800's. I believe there were six originally and would be used while Congress was in session since the boarding houses did not have indoor plumbing at that time. Eventually they fell out of use and four of the tubs were removed. The space that the last two are in was converted to a boiler room / mechanical room in the 1930's. There's actually a mechanical unite mounted on top of one of the tubs, but the other is fully accessible, although I don't think the plumbing works anymore. My son got to sit in the tub, and thought it was pretty cool to sit in a space where Presidents once bathed over 100 years ago.
Thought you were going to say that's where you met Freddy Krueger 😅
Sometime in the early to mid 1950s, my Dad took me on a tour of the Capitol. During the tour, my Dad knew where to go to find the subway and I rode over to the Senate building and back on the car. At the time we were alone on the car.
Was your dad a senator?
Pretty sure that’s an insurrection in today’s standards
I can only imagine the conversations that took place on those vehicles & trains 🤯
My parents came to visit me shortly after I moved to Virginia in the mid80's. Somehow we got passes for the Senate subway and sat with Se Bob Dole. My dad was in heaven!! It was a really cool experience!
I love their logic. The challenges of getting to and from their offices, traffic, and weather. You mean like the challenges literally everyone else has commuting to work?
@@wogfun you’re flipping burgers, they need to get a lot of different places to run our country and pass laws and bills etc lol.
In the early 1960's my Mother was dealing with a Congressman and US Senator from Pennsylvania on an issue about my Father's military service & she and I got to ride the Senators only elevator and on the subway. I was around 8 at the time. I was always a big rail & streetcar fan so I was very happy to get the special ride.
I rode on this back in the 80's when I was in the Boy Scouts.
I didn't know that the Boy Scouts were an arm of the government. ;*[}
I always had this feeling they had something like this. Good luck over there
Fortunately we've just voted and our republic trumps their oligarchy for at least 4 years.
@@mgratk Well, good luck with that! Four years can pass faster than you think. Really hope it’s the republic, not the oligarchy, running things the show this time around aswell ;)
The whole place is like Disney World with their underground tunnel system so Mickey Mouse isn't seen walking through Tomorrowland. 😉
@ Oh sure. In Norway we know all your bunkers. lol
I had the opportunity to ride along the Senate subway with Senator Lamar Alexander when I was 15. Awesome experience. Cleanest subway system I've ever been in. The open air cars was a strange feeling. Almost felt like we were riding the people mover at Disney World. The level of security was intense. We went through I think 4 different areas of metal detectors and, since we were members of the public, lots of pat downs. Still one of my favorite memories from our trip to DC
This is very much open to the public if you know how to request access. Lots of other videos here on YT from transit Vloggers who have ridden and filmed it, it recent years.
I have been on that train several times. My first time was with then Senator Jesse Helms from the capital to his office. Great experience!
I rode this subway in 1998 when my best friend was giving a week-long seminar to the FAA. He paid for my plane tickets and hotel. I was a bus driver and he knew I couldn't afford it. Senate minority leader Tom Daschle was a friend of his, so he told us to go to his office. From there, we rode the subway to the Capitol and met Daschle there. Then, got a special tour. I was feeling pretty special that day. Of course, this probably couldn't happen now. A few years later, my buddy told me that Daschle asked how I was doing. I was blown away that he remembered.
Senate staffer here! After a Capitol tour, ask the office tour guide to escort you back to the office building through the subway. They might be able to show you! Just not the tour guides in red coats.
London's underground also has a secret railway that runs in a loop around London. Its purpose was for moving mail and packages to various stops along the way. I don't think it's still in use, but you can ride on it a few times each year. There was a film produced in the 1930s that tells the mail trains history and the need for such a service.
It is called Mail Rail. It still exists but is no longer used. It is now part of the national postal museum, and you can take rides on it in small purpose built passenger cars.
@@davidbutton3500 I have a bit of a nerdish side that loves trains especially the London Underground and the Paris Metro. Moscow's stations are interesting too.
It wasn’t a secret! It stopped being used to distribute mail in 2003.
According to my English uncle (an electrical engineer it used LIMs for propulsion and braking just like Vancouver's SkyTrain.
Linear Induction Motors.
I wonder why it was taken out of service. Seems like an efficient way to move the mail in a busy metropolis like London.
That’s not secret either, just that it wasn’t advertised and it doesn’t run now anyway. It served a number of mail depots and Paddington station in the west. Most of these places have closed so it now doesn’t have a reason to continue.
There is a small part of the system that you can visit on specially built carriages. The rest is just “mothballed” and closed down
I’ve had the opportunity to ride this subway several times as I grew up! My dad worked for the fed gov and was able to take us all over the capitol to places I didn’t even think he could go. He’s retired now but I’ll always remember how awesome it was to see all of that.
My parents and I rode this train in summer '00 when I was 13 and we had special passes but walked in with no security checking us and hopped the train near the Holocaust Museum and took it to the capitol budling. We walked around the 2nd floor and back halls of the house and senate with no escort for hours. This was a year before 9/11
Sssh. I knew about this, but I appreciate your report. Thanks.
I was in high school in 79 when I went on a Close Up trip to DC and we got to ride on the senate subway. 😊
I rode on it as a kid during a field trip in the 80's.
I've ridden this subway twice in my life. The last time happened on the day of the Sandy Hook shooting. I'll never forget disembarking the tram and with all the TVs in the tunnel, we watched the aftermath. A side note, there are services available in the tunnels, like convenience shops and a barber. As an aside, there is also a walking tunnel that connects the Capitol with the Library Of Congress as well.
Aprox 20 years ago, eBay flew 50 eBay sellers, one from each state to DC to spend 3 days lobbying Capital Hill. While there, we were granted access to use the senate subway system to move around between the capital and the Senate buildings. First time I learned there was a subway system between the buildings. I was surprised how dated the cars where.
A video on the even more super-secret tunnel between the Pentagon and the White House would be fascinating. Built secretly in the late 2000s after 9/11 to link these two top national security areas, no known public photograph of it exists.
How did you find out?
It's a myth.
@@k.r.baylor8825 Under the Potomac?
I’m skeptical, at best.
@christopherjohnson1803 this tunnel definitely exists. It is connected to the Blue line of the DC metro most likely though. Farragut West to Pentagon Station is primarily underground. Until you reach the Arlington cemetery portion. It doesn't attach to the pentagon, but is more of an escape route out of DC if needed from what I heard around the block. My parents worked for the government in DC and the pentagon, and even before 9/11 the farragut to cemetery escape route was known then.
I never knew that they had senate subway in Washington, DC. That’s very interesting to see it all. Thanks so much for sharing this! You have a great day today.
This capital subway is also featured in a video game, called Fallout 3 which is where I learned of this subway, though I didn't realize it was real!
I had a chance to ride on this years ago when my grandparents took me to DC on a trip.
This is cool! I knew about the walking tunnels and actually have used them, but I didn't know about the subway.
I got to ride the Senators subway when I was in DC in 2019 with senators Garden and Bennett
Was a boy scout on my way to fort A P Hill for a national jamboree back in 1980.
A bunch of us were roaming around the capital building unsupervised. We found our way down to this subway and scared the crap out of the security guard who could not figure out how we managed to get down there. All good. We were wearing our scout uniforms and were as harmless as we looked. Good times and great memories
I have rode on the Senate Subway. Nothing fancy and it is quick.
When carrying The President is the train designated TRAIN ONE?
Not if it's only one train😂
gravy is its call sign
Trains are typically just designated as POTUS call sign, or CITY HALL.
@ Doesn’t that include all passengers? Carrying the cream. Fat bloaty stuff. 😳😂
Holy crap I got a private tour with some connections I have in Washington, didn’t know you would find out about this. But it’s not big of a secret and it was awesome to ride on one of these.
I got to ride it a few times when I was a kid. I tried to tell people about it and so many folks thought I was lying
You say it’s not accessible to the public, but my wife and I rode on it the day Lech Walesa addressed a joint session of Congress in 1989.
I rode it. My Aunt and Uncle retired Capitol Hill Police; we rode it once to get in the Capitol for a tour…
At one time the public had access, in the early 80s while on a Closeup trip to Washington DC we went to the Senate office buildings to get the passes to sit in the galleries while in session.
We was there this past summer we was allowed to ride down there it's really neat as hell
I actually rode on this train on a school field trip tour in 2004. Definitely not supposed to normally, but Senator Mark Pryor chanced it and let us on to get to the other wing quickly. He was a chaperone on the field trip because his son was in my class
What cool piece of American history
11:00 - That goofy multi element switch sure looks like a reliability nightmare. Looks like it was designed by a vendor that had never designed a rail system before.
It used to be open to the public, I've ridden on it many times without an escort. But increasing security concerns placed these limitations on it.
"Not for the Public to ride" Just to fund. Sounds about right.
Not much has changed over the centuries. We're still tax chattel for our rulers.
@ yep & the golden grease that keeps the machine running.
There is a video game that also features part of this system - Tom Clancy's 'The Division 2' a specific mission in the looter-shooter genre game.
The mission is the NSA Bunker, that starts right where the Subway station is, and part of it has collapsed, the first portion of the mission has you walking down the subway itself.
@IT'S HISTORY I will email you screenshots of this
My self ,wife, and kids rode this when we visited the capital for a tour. When the tour was done, we had lunch in the cafeteria that is also on that same line underground. And we're Canadians.
I’ve ridden the Capital subway. I think it’s just as cool as the Capital itself.
Er.. don't forget to get your bird flu shot😊
I've read about a similar concept though. It was used above ground in St. Petersburg, Russia before the Russian revolution to run ministers and their assistants through the government offices around the Winter Palace
Even the vehicles on one of the lines was designed and built by Walt Disney Imagineering during the brief period Disney tried producing transit systems for third parties in the late 1970s and early 1980s! :)
Thank you
Been on that subway many times during my 20 years on the Hill.
One of the only infrastructures in the US that's well maintained.
Hey we usually have to pay for both sides of half a dozen wars.
I was on that a few times when I was an intern!
I may be one of the very few people who’ve ridden this and never served in politics 😅 Definitely a one of a kind experience
There's a lot of people not in politics that have ridden in it
Don't forget the food court! 😂
I was born and raised in the DMV and for many from the DC metro area many know about the senate subway system.
I rode the subway from the Hart building to the capitol in mid 2001 as the guest of a senator. Just three months prior to 9/11.
Now we know why half of them waddle around
I have rode this subway while on a tour of DC back in the late 80s
well it is kinda open to public they do have tours and they were taking people into that from across the street from the capitol . when we went there security was very lax and we were surprised there wasnt more security. the medal dectors werent even on
Back when the public was welcome in the Capital I rode this little subway every month from the Capital to the Rayburn Building and back. I remember being in a car with Teddy Kennedy once. There wasn’t even a metal detector at the Capital door until the Reagan assassination attempt.
In the late 90s, I did a contract with the capitol police, and for several days got to ride the subway several times. Its odd though, it only ran about 300 ft end to end. The train I rode, was open topped, and had to be driven by a woman who moved the train back and forth when you ran a bell at the other end.
I've driven a truck into a government underground base it was a 18-wheeler plenty of parking in that big underground parking lot
In August 1978 my family visited Congressman Conte, and one of his staff took us on an underground subway like you showed in this video. I was 11 years old. As I recall, we went to either the White House or the Capitol Building, but it's been too long for me to remember. We were given a private tour though.
Was this the same subway or did the Congressmen have their own?
I still have my Visitor Pass from 8/22/78.
Privileged and powerful, he said it in the first min.
God forbid the politicians have to use the same streets that we use. Fire and police don't even have a unique travel system and they rush to Emergencies!!!!!
Buiiding subway systems provides perfect cover for the construction of secret underground bunkers.
When my bio-grandmother worked at Republican National Committee, we rode those same trains to get lunch. I was surprised there was an underground railroad system. I remembered saying, “this is poetic, having an underground railroad system under the capital”. The look she gave me let me know I will not be returning.
Thanks for the great video! Great job and God bless you (John 3:16)!
You can access them via a divergent line on the opposite side of the river, its an emergency route.
But it is accessible to the public... you can reach out to you representative and they give tours from someone in their office (usually an intern)
I've literally been on it twice
I highly doubt that's something my local M.P. (Labour) is likely to be able to arrange... 🗳🇬🇧😋
@@dieseldragon6756 Likely not, but who knows, maybe he's a friend with a Congresscritter and can work something out.
@@JeffDeWitt Admittedly, the flight to Washington DC would be a bit of a challenge for me as well. Not just because I don't have much cash, but the only company I've ever felt comfortable „flying“ with is Eurostar, who don't serve the USA yet. 🚄🇪🇺💨😇
(And knowing how terrible my airport navigation is, I'd probably wind up in the other Washington - The one close to the Canadian border - If I attempted the journey. 🙃)
I'm on it right now, figuratively.
There is a underground railway system that runs all across the country in the United States its top secret, very few people know of it . From the east coast to the west coast and north Dakota to Colorado and New Mexico and Nevada, i know someone who worked on It for years he told me about it just before he passed away from cancer. A very close friend. So i know that he was telling me details before he passed away because he wanted to share his thoughts before he passed, we had been friends for over 45 years.. rip Ed,
As a child my Aunt worked for the Navy Department and later for the President. Looking back, She must have had some clout. A special private tour was arranged that included the Capitol bulding, subway and we had lunch in the Senate Dining Room.
While vacationing in DC, I almost got to ride it. After asking some rando staffer the quickest way out of the offices to the capital building, he told me to just take this. I spotted a sign saying something along the lines of "not for public use," but I figured since someone told me to take it, I'd have that and ignorance as an excuse. If I had just walked more confidently and not made eye contact with a guard, I could have got on. He was really cool about it though and didn't question my story about a staffer telling me it was ok to use. It actually really surprised me that I didn't get grilled about it since I was just some guy trying to get on the "special" government employee only train. Of course, this may have also been the same building that had an open unguarded loading dock that anyone could have walked in through. I can't remember if it was a different building or not. It was definitely a different building I went by that had a sleeping cop by himself in the guard shack.
I've ridden that train when visiting DC. It's not restricted to government officials. Tourists can ride it
The first "tram" (I'm not sure that's the correct term), was what we would now call a BEV, a Battery Electric Vehicle, made by Studebaker. At least one of them survives and I believe it is currently at the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana.
how does the weather get in?
I've ridden it, it was very nice
They are not as secretive and restricted as I thought from what I heard you can actually get a tour and even ride on these shuttles you have to book a tour with your representative and set it up there's a couple of streamers that actually done it and documented everything one good UA-camr is. trains are awesome. he has a really good high-definition video on it from last year
What’s that? Security Cameras every ten feet?
If they have this railway that no one can see or use; it is guaranteed they have more lines for use in emergencies
But can we be _sure_ there are additional lines (Though aye, probably. This *is* the United States government... 😉) if we cannot see them? Do those lines exist, or do they not? 🙃
Oh dear...I fear the U.S. Senate might have inadvertently created _Schrödingers' Railway..._ 🚆❓😋
The Senate subway also appeared in the 1962 film Advise and Consent, directed by Otto Preminger.
I've seen a little bit on this before on another video a few years back but there isn't much around on it to be seen.
Circa 6:50 "This new system featured enclosed cars..." - so what then is being shown at that point in the video??
@@perfgeek makes me think this is just AI generated content. Some other indicators as well IMHO 😅
At 6:10 it obviously an automobile, he called it a tram running on track...
I rode this many times when I lived in DC, Barry Goldwater gave me a pass.
Something to note: there is a very loose connection between this and Disney's People Mover. Walt Disney originally had the ride created as a demonstration of how the technology could efficiently move people around in contrast to cars or a traditional subway.
In the 90s, the public could use it only if the Senate was not in session or voting on bills. And maybe only when accompanied by Senate staff. I was there in 1997 and we were going to ride it but then members got called for a vote and it was off limits.
There's an identical system at the Houston international airport. Both of them are based on the same magnetic drive system that is used by the people mover in Walt Disney World.
We got to ride on it on our visit to the capital
Now do a video on the tunnel system from DC to Raven Rock.
So I'm supposed to see this, and I'm still not supposed to think there are vacuum tubes crisscrossing the world? Uh huh.
I’ve been in this subway.
The only thing surprising about the Senate subway is that the House hasn't insisted on their own subway, too.
In the 1990s I was 12 years old when my parents took us to DC, this would have been summer 1995. We were one of the uncommon cases when the general public is permitted to use it. We were going to see the senate in session and to get tickets we had to go to the office of one of the Ohio Senators (I think it was DeWine at the time) to get tickets from his staff. I don't remember the specific circumstances beyond that; it might have been us just being allowed to ride as a courtesy. In this case it was the open top tram that we rode, though I do remember seeing the closed one as well at the capitol station.
Prior to 9/11 it was generally pretty easy for the public to ride it. If you had tickets to view the House or Senate galleries, you could ride it. Obtaining tickets was as simple as asking for them in any senators’ or reps’ office. As long as you said you were a constituent, you would be handed them no questions asked. Some offices just left stacks of gallery tickets in the office reception areas.
Aren't the Russell and Hart buildings right across the street? Like 200-300 yards? I guess the paper article was correct, an easy way to avoid their constituents.
It was open to the public in 1987 when I rode if from my Reps office to the capitol building. Al you had to do was ask.
Fascinating 🤔🤔
In the 1980s we got to ride one of the lines I do not remember which.