American History

 Day 163

After walking just under five miles yesterday we decided to scale it back a little and look into alternative transportation to the Smithsonian, saving the walking for inside the museums. Ideally I would have opted for the electric scooters available throughout central Washington, but the weather put a stop to that idea. Instead we found the local bus called the Circulator that ran from Union Station to the Smithsonian and all the high profile memorials. 

The bus only cost a dollar and if you had an epass, your dollar was good for two hours enabling you to use the bus as a hop on, hop off system. After our inauguration to the Marc train yesterday we found ourselves quickly at Union Stations and headed to the Circulator bus stop, luckily there was one waiting. After a few minutes of tutorial from the bus driver on how to load the epass, we were on our way. Not familiar with the bus routes, we missed our stop and had to do a little backtracking to the museum.

Todays destination is the American History Museum. The museum is well done, unfortunately the one section that was of the biggest interest, the music and film section was closed. We explored the balance of the museum until three o’clock and decided to begin our trek home for the day. 

Taking the bus this time around. 

The great garrison flag. Made in 1813 for $405.90. Was not allowed to take photos so these I found. 

Cleaning and restoration of the flag cost $21 million. Now housed in a dust & light sensitive room. 

Great Historical Clock of America. 

Printing Press Benjamin Franklin learned the trade on. 

1776 American gunboat. Sunk the same year built in Champlain Lake 

George Washingtons Uniform. 

George Washingtons battle sword. 

American civil war battle between the CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor. 

Armour plate from the CSS Virginia. 

Hangar window from Pearl Harbor.. hard to see but it has bullet hole from Zeros strafing the airfield. 

Pieces of the Berlin Wall (right side in the cubbies) 

Huey helicopter used in the Vietnam war. 

Pieces from the south tower of the World Trade Centre. 

Julia Childs kitchen, donated to the Smithsonian by her in 2001. 

Two hundred year old house dismantled and reassembled in the museum. 

Helen Keller received this watch in 1892 when she was 12. The watch was specially made allowing her to tell the time by feeling pins along the edge. 

A fair amount of American history seem to be based on slavery, land grabbing and wars.