The National Visitor Center was an ill-fated attempt to repurpose
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
's
Union Station
A union station (also known as a union terminal, a joint station in Europe, and a joint-use station in Japan) is a railway station at which the tracks and facilities are shared by two or more separate railway companies, allowing passengers to ...
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol, often called The Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the seat of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, which is formally known as the United States Congress. It is located on Capitol Hill ...
and other Washington attractions. It opened for the
Bicentennial __NOTOC__
A bicentennial or bicentenary is the two-hundredth anniversary of a part, or the celebrations thereof. It may refer to:
Europe
*French Revolution bicentennial, commemorating the 200th anniversary of 14 July 1789 uprising, celebrated ...
celebrations in 1976, but it never was able to attract enough crowds to sustain its operating costs, and it closed in 1978.
Conception and construction
As American railroad travel declined in the years after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, Union Station fell into financial and physical disrepair, losing much of its former glory as "one of Washington's grandest public spaces" and leading to discussion of alternative uses for the building. In 1958, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) and the Pennsylvania Railroad considered giving away the station or tearing it down and replacing it with an office building. In the early 1960s, government proposals for turning the station into a cultural center or railroad museum were rejected.
In 1967, the chairman of the
U.S. Civil Service Commission
The United States Civil Service Commission was a government agency of the federal government of the United States and was created to select employees of federal government on merit rather than relationships. In 1979, it was dissolved as part of ...
expressed interest in using Union Station as a visitor center during the upcoming
U.S. Bicentennial
The United States Bicentennial was a series of celebrations and observances during the mid-1970s that paid tribute to historical events leading up to the creation of the United States of America as an independent republic. It was a central event ...
celebrations. The notion found a strong supporter in U.S. Representative Kenneth J. Gray. In 1968, Congress passed the National Visitor Center Facilities Act toward this end. President
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
signed the act into law to create a "central clearinghouse where a visitor can gather information about our many monuments, museums, and Government buildings". On March 12, 1968, the center was authorized into the hands of the
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...
.
Funding for this was collected over the next six years, but progress was slowed by lawsuits, issues with contracts, and battles among
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...
and the other railroads involved, Congress, the National Park Service, the
Federal Railroad Administration
The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is an agency in the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). The agency was created by the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. The purpose of the FRA is to promulgate and enforce rail saf ...
Reconstruction of the station included outfitting the famous Main Hall, with its 90-foot ceilings, with a recessed pit to display "Welcome to Washington", an expensive slide show presentation. This was officially the PAVE - the Primary Audio-Visual Experience, produced by the joint output of 100 Kodak Carousel slide projectors behind 100 screens, but was sarcastically referred to as "the Pit".
The center also featured two 175-seat movie theaters, multilingual information desks, an exhibit on
first ladies
First lady is an unofficial title usually used for the wife, and occasionally used for the daughter or other female relative, of a non-monarchical head of state or chief executive. The term is also used to describe a woman seen to be at the t ...
, a Hall of States, a new parking garage, and a bookstore.
Opening and quick decline
The entire project was completed, save for the parking garage, and opening ceremonies were held on July 4, 1976. But the expected large Bicentennial crowds failed to materialize.
Time did not help; due to a lack of publicity and convenient parking, the National Visitor Center was never popular. To some, the problem was more basic; Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, "What is the point of looking at slides of the U.S. Capitol when you can walk out the front door and see it?" By May 1978, the parking garage was still only half complete. On some days there were only a few dozen tourists who used the center. Two 175-seat movie theaters in the center played the film '' City Out of Wilderness'' to small handfuls of people. Total
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...
expenditures for the National Visitor Center eventually ran to over $100 million, and some 20 congressional hearings were held about the project. The Pit, whose slide show was by now frequently turned off, became emblematic of the whole center's failure.
The lack of crowds meant the center could not sustain its operation. Financial considerations caused the National Park Service to close the theaters, end the slideshow presentation in "the Pit", and lay off almost three-quarters of the center's staff on October 28, 1978.
Union Station afterward
With the visitor center closed, the physical condition of the structure got worse. Parts of the roof collapsed and rain damage ensued,
toadstool
A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. ''Toadstool'' generally denotes one poisonous to humans.
The standard for the name "mushroom" is th ...
s grew inside the main hall, and the whole station was sealed shut in 1981. Congress decided to save it by act, and control over the entity was transferred from the National Park Service to the Department of Transportation on December 29, 1981. Contractors soon covered over the unloved Pit, completed and expanded the unfinished parking garage, and refurbished the basement movie theaters. Union Station was eventually restored, expanded, and viably reopened in 1988 as both a busy train station and a popular commercial retail area.
In retrospect, the National Visitor Center was viewed as a classic case of "federal tinkering" gone bad, "one of Washington's major embarrassments" and an idea that "failed miserably ... ndclosed in disgrace". Along with the new parking garage, one National Park Service historian later wrote sardonically that the primary legacy of the National Visitor Center was "100 surplus Carousels".