Planned for wheelchair riders
Blue, Orange, and Silver Lines at George Washington University, then a long route outside. The Lincoln Memorial and the Kennedy Center are not “right outside.” The elevators only get you to street level.
Written for riders who need to know how long the route to the memorials is.
Station C04
The real barrier
Station elevators · then a long route to the memorials
Even when the elevator works, you still face open sidewalks toward the river or the memorials.
Disability & mobility
Foggy Bottom–George Washington University (GWU) is the Metro stop people are told to use for Lincoln Memorial day trips and Kennedy Center evenings. That advice skips the trip outside: heat, slopes, and distance, after the effort of getting out of the station.
Memorials
The long route west. The National Park Service manages the way to the memorial; Metro only gets you to Foggy Bottom. Plan rest stops and water, and decide whether today is realistic with a wheelchair or stroller.
Accessibility page for Lincoln Memorial
Best for the Lincoln Memorial and nearby memorials
River
Shorter than the route to Lincoln, but still several city blocks outside. The building is wide, so decide which Kennedy Center entrance you need before you leave the station.
Accessibility page for Kennedy Center
Best for the Kennedy Center
“Closest Metro” in a memorial brochure does not mean “easy in a wheelchair after the elevator.”
If the Foggy Bottom elevators are out, Farragut West or Smithsonian do not make the route to the memorials easier. They just give you a different route outside. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) elevator-outage shuttle: 202-962-1825 · TTY 202-638-3780.
On the ground
Three steps: the elevator, the sidewalk, your destination.
01
Both elevators matter. If one is out, the trip ends before the hard part outside even starts.
02
You are in a city neighborhood, not on the National Mall. Every block toward Lincoln or the Kennedy Center means weather and slopes.
03
The National Park Service and the Kennedy Center manage their own plazas, ramps, and routes inside. Metro only gets you to Foggy Bottom.
Why this stop feels different
People say Foggy Bottom is “close to Lincoln.” For accessibility, what matters is the route.
The station serves a university neighborhood that is also the last rail stop before West Potomac Park. Visitor maps show it all as one pin. For a wheelchair or stroller, the distance is real.
This guide is here so the trip outside is not a surprise after you have already gone down into the station.
On the street
Foggy Bottom–GWU station
23rd & I St NW · George Washington University
Washington, District of Columbia
23rd Street NW · long route west or toward the river
Blue · Orange · Silver
Nearby: Lincoln Memorial, Kennedy Center. When elevators are out: don’t assume another downtown stop makes the route shorter.
Open Foggy Bottom on the live mapLive elevator status at Foggy BottomAfter the elevator
Times are hand-set for a chair or stroller pace, including the long route outside — not live routing, and slower than on the Mall.
At the venue
We copied these by hand from each venue’s own pages. They may be out of date or wrong, so confirm on the venue’s page before you go.
Source: Kennedy Center
Source: National Park Service
Last look
Four things to check before you go.
Both elevators matter. When the route afterward is already long, an outage is not a small delay.
If the route to Lincoln or the Kennedy Center is not realistic today, working elevators won’t help.
National Park Service and Kennedy Center accessibility information is separate from Metro. Check it before you count the station as the end of the trip.
Getting back tired is also an access problem. Know how you’ll get back before you go.
About this guide. We put these guides together by hand. Travel times are our own estimates, and venue details are copied from their websites, so either can be wrong or out of date. Check the venue’s page before you go. For elevators, trust the live map and the transit agency.