Giant Heart, locomotive to anchor Franklin renovation [Video]

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — More than $20 million has been secured to reimagine two exhibits that feature a couple of the Franklin Institute’s most iconic display pieces. In celebration of the science museum’s bicentennial, visitors will have new opportunities to explore its Giant Heart and its enormous locomotive.

One new exhibit, called Body Odyssey, explores the human body. The centerpiece of the $8.5 million project is the museum’s four-ton, walk-through model of the human heart.

“The Giant Heart, originally built in 1954, really was the largest, most immersive exhibition on the human body anywhere in the world at the time,” said Larry Dubinski, the museum’s president and CEO.

Originally constructed of papier-mâche, chicken wire and lumber, the display has been kept “beating” for some 70 years. At 15,000 times larger than a real heart, it has allowed millions of museum visitors to visualize the organ’s inner workings.

“It’s in a box right now …