Bicentennial Visitor Center

Thousands of people pass this sign daily, and even those who notice it may not know what it means.

This pylon is in the Washington DC metro system, in the Union Station stop. It is the only pylon remaining that indicates Union Station was once very different from the way it looks today. 32 million people visit Union Station every year, and only a handful know the station's history. This picture is of the metro system, but it's about the train station above.

Union Station opened for business in 1908, and was considered for demolition just 50 years later. Various attempts were made at improving it over the next few years, and as the nation's bicentennial approached, it was decided to use the station as a National Visitor Center. Despite major restructuring and the creation of a huge audiovisual experience, the center didn't last, and was only open from 1976 to 1978. The metro station had opened just a few months before the Visitor Center, and it featured the tag on all of its signage. Following the failure of the Visitor Center, Union Station fell into serious disrepair in the early 1980s, but was reopened in 1988. In place of the Visitor Center was the downstairs food court area, which thousands of people visit daily - I was there today - while having no idea of the National Visitor Center ever having been there.

Usually when the subway authority changes a station's name, all signage is updated with the new name. This pylon is the only one that still says Visitor Center, although you can still see where the letters were covered over on an adjacent pylon. The other side includes the stop listing "Union Sta-Visitor Ctr" but this is the only place where you can still see that label.

I worry that someday they'll cover over this pylon too, and nobody will remember the National Visitor Center at all.