The cash registers were quickly abandoned at the various stores and fast food outlets at Union Station on Capitol Hill today when an earthquake hit the Middle Atlantic region according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The venerable old building, which goes back to the heyday of rail travel, shook violently when the magnitude 5.9 quake (centered NW of Richmond, Va.) struck.
Employees, visitors and those just enjoying their lunch in the building started to run very quickly out of the building and congregate out in front of the station. The initial thought among many, in this era of terrorism, was that a bomb had exploded somewhere in the building. One bystander voiced the thought when he said, “maybe two trains ran into each other.”