March 27, 1976: Washington, D.C. Finally Gets a Subway

March 27, 1976: The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) opens the District of Columbia's 1st subway system, known as the Metro. Its "M" signs point the way to entrances.

Actually, D.C.'s 1st subway line was built in 1909, linking the U.S. Capitol Building to what's now named the Russell Senate Office Building. Added to this were one in 1960 for what became the Dirksen Senate Office building, one for the Rayburn House Office Building in 1965, and one for the Hart Senate Office Building in 1982.

Like Montreal's system, the Washington Metro's trains have rubber tires, making it much quieter than the other systems in the Northeast: New York, Philadelphia and Boston (and, later, Baltimore). And its arched stations are considerably more artistic than those cities' older stations.

Unlike the systems in New York and Philadelphia, but like Boston's and Baltimore's, Washington's leaves its main city -- Washington, District of Columbia. Unlike any of them, it actually crosses State Lines, going into the suburbs of Maryland and Virginia. (New York has the PATH system, and Philadelphia has the PATCO Speedline, both of which go into New Jersey, but neither is part of the city's official subway system.)

One of the main reasons baseball's Washington Senators failed -- twice -- was low attendance. In 1960, when the "Old Senators" moved to become the Minnesota Twins, there was no subway line to Griffith Stadium. The Shaw-Howard University station on the Green Line opened in 1991, far too late to save that team. In 1971, when the "New Senators" moved to become the Texas Rangers, there was no subway line to Robert F. Kennedy Stadium. The Stadium-Armory station opened in 1977, serving RFK on the Blue, Orange and Silver Lines. The system also has Red and Yellow Lines.

Washington was the 1st city in the country to use a fare-card admission system, never using tokens. Eventually, the rest of the country caught up with them.

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March 27, 1976 was a Saturday. Future basketball star Danny Fortson was born.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 7 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat their arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics, 105-103 at Madison Square Garden. Earl "the Pearl" Monroe scored 35 points.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Chicago Bulls, 99-84 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. The Metro wouldn't open a Landover station until 1978.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 103-99 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 112-94 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 109-95 at The Summit in Houston. It's now the Central Campus of televangelist Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Kansas City Kings, 117-100 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

* And the Golden State Warriors beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers, 113-97 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

The American Basketball Association was in what turned out to be its final season. There were 2 games. The Denver Nuggets beat the Virginia Squires, 124-123 in overtime at The Scope in Norfolk. David Thompson scored 36 for the Nuggets. And the San Antonio Spurs beat the Kentucky Colonels, 108-90 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

There were 7 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 6-5 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Kansas City Scouts, 8-2 at the Montreal Forum.

* The Boston Bruins and the Philadelphia Flyers played to a tie, 4-4 at the Boston Garden.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat their rivals, the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-2 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Atlanta Flames, 8-0 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.

* The St. Louis Blues beat the Minnesota North Stars, 6-3 at the St. Louis Arena.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Vancouver Canucks, 7-3 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the New York Islanders, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the California Golden Seals and the Washington Capitals were not scheduled.

There were 2 games in the World Hockey Association. The Quebec Nordiques beat the Calgary Cowboys, 6-4 at the Colisée de Québec. And the Phoenix Roadrunners beat the San Diego Mariners, 5-2 at the San Diego Sports Arena (now the Pechanga Arena).

And in English soccer, the North London team I would one day support, Arsenal, traveled to Yorkshire, and lost to Leeds United, 3-0 at Elland Road in Leeds.