[jmecklenborg]

The big difference between Washington and everywhere else is that the federal government owned much of the land and buildings in the district, meaning there weren't big private interests competing to have stations built right next to their property AND away from the sites of their competitors.

If you owned one of the big department stores back in the 1950s, a subway was only of use if a station - hopefully a transfer station - was located directly outside your building's front door. What would be really great is if that same line or lines were made to not serve your competitor.

This phenomenon was compounded by the wealthy families who owned land leases under the likely postwar skyscraper sites. Washington didn't have that same issue because of the height limit + the lack of blue blood land leases.

Fogelson's Downtown book goes into detail on height limits, land leases, and rapid transit. There was a consistent pattern in all big US cities from Boston west to St. Louis, with the exception of Washington.