Escalators: Superlatives: (2) Longest Individual Escalators: (2. 2) North and South America:The longest set of single-span uninterrupted escalators in the Western Hemisphere is at the Wheaton station of the Washington Metro system. They are 230 feet (70 m) long with a vertical rise of 115 feet (35 m), and take what is variously described as 2 minutes and 45 seconds or nearly three-and-a-half minutes, to ascend or descend without walking. The longest freestanding (supported only at the ends) escalator in the world is inside CNN Center’s atrium in Atlanta, Georgia. It rises 8 stories and is 205 feet (62 m) long. Originally built as the entrance to the amusement park The World of Sid and Marty Krofft, the escalator is now used for CNN studio tours. In December 2011, a network of six escalators totalling 1,260 feet (384 m), equivalent to 28 stories high, was opened in Medellin, Colombia, offering the 12,000 residents of Comuna 13 a six-minute ride to the city center compared to their previous 35-minute climb on foot