I commuted everyday from Union Station for three years. It is the most captivating train station in D.C., if not America.
But it is also terrifying.
I never walked through it. I walked around it, skirting the edges of the homeless encampments that had claimed the surrounding blocks as their own.
One day I decided to cut through Columbus Circle, the park directly in front of Union Station which features a large statue of Christopher Columbus.
15 paces in, three rats ran in front of me. I turned around and didn’t look back.
So when I got the invite to attend the reopening of Columbus Circle, I almost skipped it.
“Is this worth going to?” I asked my editor when I got the invite.
Despite three years of daily commutes past the park, I couldn’t quite picture the landmark. A statue, sure. But I mainly remembered it as the homeless encampments, rats and graffiti. The park I didn’t want to enter.
For months, a tall fence surrounded Columbus Circle. On Thursday, the National Guard escorted me through it.
And for the first time, I saw what Columbus Circle is supposed to be.