ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, November 3, 1996 TAG: 9611040084
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: The Washington Post
This would be no ordinary move. The boxes contained the nation's history.
So when the National Archives began the arduous task of moving valuable records from its main building in downtown Washington to its second home in College Park, Md., the most extraordinary care, planning and precision went into packing.
Before moving the 8,000 glass negatives of Civil War photographs taken by photojournalist Matthew Brady, archivists wrapped each one individually, placed them in custom-built crates and loaded them onto carts with shock-absorbing wheels.
Before packing decades-old color movie film that had been kept in cold storage, the archivists placed plywood carts and quilts in 40-degree vaults overnight to chill them for loading the next day.
Before pulling away from the loading dock, each moving van driver put another on call to be dispatched at a moment's notice in case of trouble along the way.
Now, after three years, the move was nearly complete. And for archives staff members, who have moved an average of 9,000 boxes a day, that was a cause for celebration Friday.
John Carlin, archivist of the United States, ceremoniously pushed one of the carts into a moving van before it was hauled across the District line into Prince George's County, Md. He thanked the group of about 40 workers gathered around, snapping pictures and swapping stories.
When the van reached Archives II to unload, 50 staff members were waiting. Since 1993, at least 300 of them have spent every working hour making sure that no piece of history entrusted to their care was lost during the move.
Apparently, they were successful.
Not an inch of the 112,274 reels of motion pictures was scratched, officials said. Not one of the nearly 8 million photographs and 13 million maps was torn. Not a page of the nearly 2 billion pages of documents was lost.
``It's a significant achievement, the largest movement of records ever, period,'' Carlin said. ``It was done on time and moved without a loss of records or damage to records.''
About a decade ago, archives officials realized they were running out of space and began planning a new center.
Both locations will serve as research centers. The D.C. center, which draws more than 1 million visitors a year, will keep the Charters of Freedom and all records of the Revolutionary and Civil wars, U.S. Navy, Census Bureau and Congress and all of the original Public Laws and international treaties. Most others have been moved to Archives II, which opened in 1994.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 linesby CNB