Day 5
Grand Tour of the East Coast

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FAQ		 The fifth day of my trip to the East Coast ended my first week in Washington, DC. The previous day had been given over to civic sights, so today I planned to see more museum attractions, preferably the remaining galleries of the Air and Space Museum plus the National Gallery of Art.

I set off to the teeming tourist center of Washington, where I arrived well before any of the museums opened. I walked partway down Pennsylvania Avenue, stopping briefly at the interesting Navy Memorial before passing a broad esplanade fronting the unattractive J. Edgar Hoover Building.
A bus disguised as a streetcar passes in front of the Capitol dome at the beginning of Pennsylvania Avenue.
 An Art Deco frieze on the Federal Trade Commision.


The cockpit of a blimp on the Navy Memorial.
 The recovery of Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 spacecraft.

The Old Post Office was on my list of places to visit, so I stepped inside. For some stupid reason, I had to pass through a security checkpoint. Good heavens, is it really necessary to screen me before going to a food court and some souvenir shops?

I was mainly interested in riding an elevator up to the observation deck in the building's tower. The view was great, but I distracted myself with taking copious pictures when I should have just enjoyed the view.

View of Pennsylvania Avenue from the Old Post Office.
 The sprawling Ronald Reagan Building in the foreground.
 The Department of the Treasury blocks a clear view of the White House.

The museums were open by now, so I headed to the Mall. The natural history museum was closer, so I went there instead of the art gallery. I found it thorougly disappointing. The place was swarming with elementary school kids, in some places packed wall-to-wall. I couldn't get close to the dinosaur skeletons, which of course I wanted to see. Scores of tourists jostled and elbowed each other to catch fleeting glimpses of the so-called "Hope Diamond," which I would have found interesting had I not needed to fight to see it. The only part of the museum I really liked was a large collection of meteorites, all carefully prepared and labeled.

Exterior of the natural history museum.
 This is reportedly the largest elephant ever shot.
 Huddled masses yearning to breathe free.



Stegosaurus, a Colorado native.
 Tyrannosaurus rex, everyone's favorite dinosaur.
 A moon rock.

After a revolting lunch in the Air and Space Museum's food court, I took in the two galleries I had missed earlier. One of the galleries showed a desultory collection of space hardware, which was about as I remembered it from '01. (Although Wiley Post's flying suit was not on display. To shame!)
A CRAY supercomputer, formerly from the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder. I remember seeing a later-generation CRAY on grade school field trips to NCAR.
 Japanese "Pencil" rocket, which is smaller than most model rockets I've built.


Someone corrected the museum's spelling of the German word Raumschiffahrt.
 A space station model featured in episodes of the Disneyland television show in the 1950s. Wernher von Braun hosted three episodes of the show.

The other gallery had on temporary display some of the more popular items from the National Museum of American History's collection. (That museum's building was in the midst of renovation.) Obnoxious ads piped over the museum's intercom included the "not in Kansas anymore" sound clip from The Wizard of Oz, since Dorothy's original ruby red slippers were on display. I'm not sure why the museum thought that Dorothy's slippers were the most important thing in that exhibit. I refused to photograph them out of spite. The excessive advertising aside, I found the exhibit fairly interesting.

Three-strip Technicolor camera.
 Kermit the Frog. I never expected to see him in the Air and Space Museum.
 R2D2. Is this a replica? A prop from the original trilogy? The prequel trilogy? The museum's signage was woefully inadequate in this respect.



The compass used on the Corps of Discovery's (Lewis and Clark's) expedition to the Pacific Northwest, 1804-1806.
 A pike used in John Brown's failed slave revolt, 1859.
 The 60 Minutes clock.

My track led to the National Archives and yet another blasted security checkpoint followed by a maddening line. Entry was no longer through the grand bronze doors in the portico (like the Pantheon, but at least twice as big), but through a side entrance on the lower level. The Declaration of Independence looked sadly worn, but the Constitution was still clearly legible.
Interior of the National Archives.

Emerging from the darkened building into the blinding sunlight, I headed down Pennsylvania Avenue again, proceeding all of the way to the Treasury Building. The massive Greek Revival structure is almost entirely closed to visitors (of course), but the outside is interesting.
Eastern colonnade of the Department of the Treasury.
 Alexander Hamilton on guard at the south entrance of the Treasury.

I also looked at both sides of the White House. The more picturesque view was on the north.
White House, north side.
 White House, south side.

My touring ended for the day (and the week), I took the Metro back to Union Station. If I ever live in a big city, I suspect that I will come to regard use of the metro for relatively short trips as a sign of weakness.

Web links
previous:
Day 4
United States Capitol 		Grand Tour
 next:
Day 8
National galleries of Art and Portraiture

All materials herein copyright  2007 by Willy Logan
willy@wilhelm-aerospace.org