Great Platte River Road Archway Monument

Photo: License: Public Domain

The Archway is a museum of and monument to Nebraska's and the Platte River valley's role in westward expansion. The Archway is directly over Interstate 80 three miles (5 km) east of Kearney, Nebraska.

The Archway spans more than 300 feet over Interstate 80 east of Kearney, Nebraska and weighs nearly 1,500 tons.

The Archway takes visitors along the trails, rails, highways and superhighways in a self-guided audio tour that includes stories of the travelers along the way.

The show starts in the 1840s with the Mormon Trail, Oregon Trail and California Trail that converged at the nearby Fort Kearny before heading west. As visitors progress through the exhibit, the displays of different time periods feature a buffalo stampede, the Mormon Handcart Expedition, gold seekers, the Pony Express, the telegraph, the transcontinental railroad, the Lincoln Highway, a drive-in movie and a 1950s cafe.

The Archway Monument was one of the locations used in the filming of About Schmidt (2002), starring Jack Nicholson.