A fter we finished eating dinner, we were walking along the crowded downtown streets on this weekend night in the District of Columbia when we reached the busy intersection of Seventh Street Northwest and G Street Northwest.
“Wait here,” he said to me.
“Why?” I asked, puzzled.
“You will see,” he replied.
I have a penchant for being interested in some of the strangest anomalies found in this world — no matter how trivial or insignificant — and he knew of that weird aspect about me…
…but I really began wondering why we were waiting at this street corner — especially as the traffic light had changed and we still were not moving.
One Place Where You Can Walk Across an Intersection Diagonally
“Now,” he instructed as he motioned for me to walk along with him as he stepped off the curb in a diagonal direction — and we started to cross the street diagonally in what I did not realized was a painted crosswalk as the traffic of motor vehicles from every direction stopped.
Crossing that intersection diagonally initially felt odd — typically, doing that at a busy intersection is usually potentially dangerous and could be against the law — but as he surmised, I thought it was cool.
Summary
There are probably plenty of intersections around the world similar to the one I just described where pedestrians can cross diagonally instead of in an L shape across two streets perpendicularly — but I have never experienced it until that moment.
Yes, I know — sometimes I can be entertained quite easily. What can I tell you?
Gateway to Chinatown in the District of Columbia. Photograph ©2016 by Brian Cohen.Anyway, if you are even remotely as bizarre as I can be at times and want to experience crossing a busy intersection diagonally for yourself, simply head on over to the intersection of Seventh Street Northwest and G Street Northwest, which is at the edge of Chinatown in the District of Columbia. If you arrive by the Washington Metro transit system, you will want to use the Gallery Place – Chinatown station to access the intersection, which you can cross diagonally from any of the four corners.
Photograph ©2016 by Brian Cohen.
