Google Maps thinks it takes half an hour to walk to from DCA to Crystal City, but you can actually do it in fifteen minutes.

I really like leaving airports on foot. There's something about it that feels like it shouldn't be possible: between an airplane and your destination there should be some other kind of vehicle, no? It reminds me of the first time I boarded a plane without using a jetway, where walking out on the tarmac just felt wrong.

I was in DC the past two days for meetings (my first time wearing a suit in a work context) and I was staying in Crystal City. I looked at Google Maps to see if I could walk:

Walking south to go north doesn't seem great. Can we do better? I asked the volunteer at Information and they said the only way to cross the George Washington Parkway was the bridge to the south. Looking on the map, though, it seemed like the Mount Vernon Trail crossed under the Parkway to the north. And you could do something like:

This is still not ideal; you could save about 1/3 of a mile if you avoided the jog south by crossing West Entrance Road on foot. This seemed dangerous, though, so I took the intended route.

It worked well! You walk west within the airport through the north parking structure, and then you see a sign:

You keep going and there's a path down:

Which takes you to an underpass:

And from there it's just following the trail. It's all paved, and looks scooter/bike/wheelchair-compatible. This afternoon (96F, which is getting a bit warm) I walked it with a roller bag in 15.5min.

There is one optional unpaved shortcut, where you can avoid a loop. Where the sign says Crystal City to the left:

You can instead go straight, and then down a short dirt desire path: