Murder Bay

Wow, a station named after its positioning in the Metro system. If it’s even possible to improve upon this brilliance, we’d like to call the station Murder Bay (though the D.C. board of tourism may disapprove). During the late-1800s, downtown was a dump. However, there was one neighborhood that was particularly awful. Murder Bay was known for its brothels, gambling, and crime. It was so dangerous that even the police tried to stay away from the area. The level of crime and violence was almost cartoonish. One Washington Post article from 1888 wrote, “Men were known to go into Murder Bay and were not heard of again until their bodies were discovered in the canal or found buried in ash dumps.”