Smithsonian - American History

Last Saturday we decided to go to the Smithsonian Institute's American History Museum.  This is my second favorite Smithsonian after the Air and Space Museum.  The Air and Space is also Clara's favorite as we heard her say, "I want to see the planes," over and over again.  We spent most of our time in the basement which was focused on American transportation.  The cars were really cool.  My favorite was a 1977 Honda.   

This is a 77 Honda!

There were lots of trains there including a subway from Chicago that you could sit on and pretend you were on a subway.  I found it kind of ironic since most of the visitors probably arrived by subway.  They had exhibits that showed transportation in different cities at different points in time.  Some of the places I found interesting was the railroad in North Carolina, Route 66, Interstate 10, and Portland in the 40's.


the dream of the 40's is alive in Portland

They also showed how an automobile travelled across the country before there were roads.


This photo was from the Smithsonian website.

They had a picture at the show with the Navy Yard in DC where people used a very unsafe looking bridge to cross the Anacostia river to get to and from work each day in 1863.  It said that a developer built the bridge to attract workers at the Navy Yard to live accross the river.



found this photo on this site

We also went to the nuclear power section of the Smithsonian because they have an exhibit about Hanford, WA.  It's amazing that they built a town with a population of 50,000 basically overnight for the Manhatten Project. 


The R with the mushroom cloud is the logo for the Richland High School Bombers.

If you have any interest in cars, transportation, or how America was shaped by the types of transportation of the times this is a very good exhibit and I would highly recommend it.