Greyhound: 100 Year Old July Birthday
Americans have been “leaving the driving” to Greyhound for 100 years this month. From the price of the first ticket to billions of miles traveled, we take a look at the bus line by the numbers. (Gillian Brockell and Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)
It was nearing midnight when a sleek coach adorned with galloping canines inched through the new Greyhound terminal in Washington. The 45-foot-long vehicle rolled past a glass-enclosed ticket counter emitting a warm glow, a wood-paneled waiting room and me sitting on a bench, watching for the 12:01 bus to Chicago.
The driver pulled into a spot and hopped out, dressed in the same shades of blue as his charge. Despite the hour and the long road ahead, he was a ball of energy.
“The ride is faster than you think,” Tony Stevens assured the dozen or so passengers bound for destinations between the capital and the Midwest.
As part of the boarding process, Stevens matched our IDs to our tickets. He looked at my ticket — Washington to Hibbing, Minn. — and exclaimed, “I’ve been there. That’s where they have the museum.”
And that was why I was going: to visit the Greyhound Bus Museum in its place of birth 100 years ago this year. My pilgrimage would take one day, 14 hours and 19 minutes and would include three transfers (Chicago, Minneapolis, Duluth), countless rest stops (RS Midway Plaza, Pa.; Tomah, Wis.; Pine City, Minn., etc.) and several teeth-brushings in bus station bathroom sinks (Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Minneapolis).
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