This is an exhibit for that part of you that always wanted to get off the bolted-down bikes on the E.T. ride in Universal Studios and stand next to the animatronics and stage props. Chronicling the development of the automotive and railroad industries, roads and highways, “America on the Move” creates unique interactive and multimedia environments.
In its exploration of the uniquely American experience of transportation, “America on the Move” place the visitor in the center of the action. On a Windy City subway platform, visitors can board an actual car from the Chicago Transit Authority’s ‘50s “L” line. As the car softly hums across imaginary tracks, a television screen across the rear of the vehicle plays a dramatization of commuters riding.
Encompassing 26,000 square feet, “America on the Move” is the largest exhibition ever installed on the first floor of the National Museum of American History. It required a $22 million dollar renovation of the former halls of transportation, railroad, road transportation and civil engineering.
The exhibit begins in Santa Cruz, Calif., with the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1876. Next up is 1900, as a life-sized, plaster-cast merchant welcomes you to the bustle of the Center Market, crossroads of our very own Washington D.C.
Sitting between the White House and the Capital Building, Center Market was the center of a vibrant commercial life. In the exhibit, exotic produce fills market stalls. A vivid mural depicts horse-drawn carriages, bicycles and wagons, with a coloful 1898 streetcar as the centerpiece of the display.
From the vantage point of Center Market, the next 50 years of American transportation unfold: the first car to drive from San Francisco to New York comes soon after the turn of the century, and in the 1920s we see the inner world of the steam liner Oak, anchored in New York harbor. Visible in the distance are an actual slice of Route 66 and the flowering of the automotive revolution in the ‘30s and ‘40s.
“America on the Move” is mostly overwhelming, as any exhibit boasting a 1926 Ford Model T, a Greyhound bus, and a 281-ton steam locomotive must be. Occasionally the exhibit falls flat: the NYC and Los Angeles sections particularly disappoint because they fail to capture these cities’ fluidity and mobility.
The exhibit shines when focusing on individual communities and how new transportation methods altered ways of life. At the San Francisco waterfront in the ‘60s and ‘70s, we witness the rapid transfer of goods via cargo ships, freight trains and tractor trailers, which reduces the role of workers. A 10-minute documentary on the destruction of longshoremen’s culture is worthwhile in that it humanizes their plight.
For me, the true gem of the exhibit was not the most historically significant, the biggest, or the most expensive piece. In “On the Interstate: I-10,” I found my national treasure—the wood paneled, 1987 Dodge Caravan.
The pride of soccer moms and school carpools left me with the same dumb smile I had seen on parents and grandparents walking through the exhibit. This vehicle connected me to my own, albeit recent, history, and, when contrasted to the earlier pieces, demonstrated this exhibit’s appeal to a wide range of ages.
“America on the Move” is a permanent exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, located at 14th Street and Constitution Avenue NW.
