I was surprised to learn that the Library of Congress has been storing some of the great treasures of American cinema in vaults at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton. And now they're leaving, moving to a new facility in Culpepper, Virginia.

The films include the original negatives of The Maltese Falcon and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (ironic, that). The 25,000+ films on about 125,000 reels have been stored in a temperature and humidity-controlled vault at the base. The oldest movies were made pre-1900.

The vaults were originally built to house military records, including film. Old movie film, made from nitrate, is extremely flammable and subject to decay, so special care was put into the vault design. In 1969, the storage facilities were turned over to the Library of Congress for storing the nation's film archives.

Now they will reside in a former Federal Reserve building underground near Washington, renovated into the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center.

Goodbye, Mr. Smith. I hope Washington treats you better this time.