When you're transporting a piece of the nation's history across the country, I guess it's best to let the cars and other vehicles around you know to drive extra carefully. That's why the truck carrying one of the country's most famous T. rex fossils from Montana to Washington, D.C. was emblazoned with the line, "Delivering history: The Nation's T. rex," and a picture of the predatory dinosaur, the Washington Post reported.

If the driver was carrying something equally as valuable but easier to put together (like gold bricks, or, if you're in a Nicholas Cage movie, the Declaration of Independence), he or she might not have so broadly advertised his or her luggage. Even so, the T. rex was followed by a police escort to D.C.'s Smithsonian Natural History Museum, where the fossil will be kept on loan for the next 50 years. It arrived on Tuesday.

The Smithsonian has never had an actual T. rex in its quarters. In 1999, they failed in their bid to land Sue, a T. rex fossil found in South Dakota's Badlands, 90 percent complete and 42 feet long. (It went to Chicago's Field Museum for well over $2.5 million, a bid that significantly raised the financial profile of dinosaur fossils.) The one that arrived today in 16 crates is smaller and 80 to 85 percent complete, but it was found a few years before Sue and was considered a bigger deal at the time of its discovery. There's a reason it's called "the Nation's T. rex."

Since losing out on Sue, the Smithsonian has staged a life-size T. rex replica in its dinosaur hall. Though it's been a hit for museum visitors, it's presence has always bothered the place's curators, according to the Post.

"It's about time the Smithsonian had their own T. rex," Mark Robinson, marketing director at the Museum of the Rockies, where the T. rex had previously been stored, told the Republic last week. "Seven million people a year will be seeing it, and we're OK with that. It will be good exposure for the Museum of the Rockies, Montana State University and the state."

The public won't actually see their own T. rex for some time. On April 28, the Smithsonian will close for a five year renovation totaling $45 million. It's somewhat unclear if they'll be accepting visitors during this time period, though it looks like the T. rex won't be ready until the end of construction in 2019.