Over the years, I’ve added and removed a few header images for the blog. The WordPress theme I use rotates them randomly with each page load. I thought I would compile them all (current and former) on a page and offer some backstory where it might be interesting.
Gallery Place Metro Station: I took this photo from the mezzanine of the Gallery Place station, looking down on the Red Line tracks. The design is typical of DC’s vaulted stations.
Denver Union Station: The neon sign sitting atop Denver’s Union Station at dusk – this sign terminates the view down 17th Street in Downtown Denver. This photo predates the current construction occuring behind the station.
DC License Plates: Taken from some random car around my neighborhood, highlighting DC”s lack of voting rights. You can now find these plates on the Presidential Limo.
Chicago Subway: I added this photo because the subject matter was fitting for the blog and my picture cropped nicely to the header dimensions. This El train is arriving at the Monroe station on Chicago’s Blue Line. As the ad on the blue paneling shows, I took this photo sometime around the release of the Ghost Rider movie.
Milwaukee Public Market: Mirroring the photo of Denver Union Station, I happened to be walking past Milwaukee’s Public Market around dusk and thought there might be another opportunity for a neon-sign-at-dusk shot. I only had my cell phone with me at the time, so the resolution is a bit fuzzy – but I thought I’d add it to the header pool.
Dupont Circle North Entrance: DC’s Metro has plenty of long escalators, but the north entrance of the Dupont Circle station is the most sculptural. For better or worse, the circular hole at the surface has no canopy, leaving the backdrop of sky and trees for passengers riding the escalator. The stone of the circle is inscribed with an excerpt of Walt Whitman’s The Wound-Dresser. The inscription is not original to the station, it was added in 2007.
DC Water Main Diagram: From a map of DC’s water infrastructure. Mains are color-coded based on the reservoir that feeds them, which is done via gravity.
DC Metro Maps: these back-lit system maps and local maps appear throughout the Metro system. Often, they will hide old payphone booths.
Seattle Library Books Spiral: A view down the stacks in the ‘books spiral‘ at Seattle’s Central Library.
1861 DC Map: Taken from a collection of old maps. For more, see this post.
Chicago Skyline: as seen from the overpass connecting the platforms of the Ashland-Lake station on the Green Line.
DC Graffiti: from beneath the Southeast/Southwest freeway (now signed as I-695) near Garfield Park and 2nd St SE.
Union Market: rooftop signage at dusk, illuminated in red, white and blue at the renovated Union Market in Northeast DC.
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Old header images: for whatever reason, I pulled these out of the rotation. Many of these date back to a previous blog theme format with slightly different header dimensions, and I never bothered to edit the originals to the newer dimensions.
Brookland Metro Grafitti: From one of DC’s more colorful Metro stations.
Guthrie Theater: This yellow-tinted view is from the 9th floor lobby at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. The 9th floor hosts the studio theater; the building has two other theaters at lower levels. The yellow windows look out on the Mississippi River, the Stone Arch Bridge, and St. Anthony Falls. This photo was taken in December 2006, shortly after the Theater’s new building opened – in the background, looking downstream you can see the I-35W Bridge that would collapse less than a year later.
Metra Trains and Platforms: Taken at Chicago’s Union Station.
Pension Building Frieze: A picture of a portion of the frieze from Monty Miegs’ Civil War Pension Building – now home to the National Building Museum.
Union Station Colonnade: Always a cool view with the light and shadow – also used as a filming location (standing in as a flower market) for Wedding Crashers.