WASHINGTON -- If you've seen "The Exorcist," you're well familiar with the epic scenes involving the long, steep staircase in Georgetown. We won't detail exactly what happened as to not spoil the movie, but it's hard to deny that the 1973 horror movie turned the staircase into a local landmark, one that's particularly scary on a foggy night.
Author J.W. Ocker painted a good picture of how creepy the so-called "Exorcist Steps" or "Exorcist Stairs" are in a 2007 blog post:
The stairs are claustrophobic, vertiginous, dramatic, photogenic, and would be creepy even with being connected cinematically to a demon in a mutilated 14-year-old. If you knew nothing about the stairs, you would still comment on them as you walked by just for their mere existence. These are no melodramatic Rocky Steps like Philadelphia has. You don’t run up these and pump your fists. You lie down at their base broken and dying and in need of absolution.
The steps themselves connect the intersection of 36th Street NW and Prospect Street near the Georgetown University campus with Canal Road near Key Bridge.
A few years ago, The Huffington Post spotted a brave person on rollerblades climb the stairs one step at a time, gripping the handrail. It's safe to say that we would not recommend trying that.
Click through the slideshow and you'll understand why ...
