A century later, Titanic still fascinates (With Video)

It's been a little more than 100 years since the RMS Titanic went down in the icy waters of the North Atlantic Ocean on her ill-fated maiden voyage.

All the survivors have died. The ship is about 10 years from completely being consumed by salt water. We can now get from Great Britain to New York in a few hours by airplane.

Still, the legend of the Titanic endures. The Franklin Institute just opened "Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition," and the museum expects it to be its biggest draw since, well, the last time a Titanic exhibit came here in 2004.

"I was taking a cab from the airport," said Mark Lach, the creative director of the original and new exhibition, "and I was talking to the driver. He asked what I was doing in town. I told him I was here to put together the Titanic exhibit. He said, 'Wow, I missed it the first time. I'll definitely be there.'

"That's always the comments I get from people. They just want to see the all of these things."

The original Titanic exhibit might well be the most successful one at the museum. Tickets were at a premium, and lines sometimes stretched through the front doors. Lach promises even if you attended Titanic the first time, there is more to see.

"The artifact collection always changes," said Lach. "You'll see things you remember. You'll see things that were probably the same, but different as in a piece of china or first-class china. We've got the research that's being done in 2010. The entire wreck site, the bow, the stern, the debris field in between was mapped in a digital form, 3D. So you can virtually now go the wreck of the Titanic."

There is a lot of interactive aspects to the Titanic exhibit this time around. One of the most popular parts from the original time, the touchable iceberg, returns.

Still, it's certainly not like being there on one of the submarines that have ventured to the dark, deep ocean to see the wreck.

One of the first to go down was French archaeologist Paul-Henry Nargeolet, who has supervised the recovery of 5,000 artifacts, many of which are on display at the Franklin Institute.

"We first went down in 1987, that was the first expedition." Nargeolet said. "I was lucky enough to do the first dive, and we arrived on the bow section which is the most beautiful part of the ship. It's unbelievable because you can see the wheels are still shiny, you can see where they were made in Glascow, you can see the name of the builder. For about 10 minutes, nobody was talking because we were so emotional. Everything we learned about the Titanic was coming back. We said, 'OK, we are here now.'"

Nargeolet last visited the wreck site in 2010 to begin the mapping process. He said, despite some reports the site was falling apart due to the numourous visits since 1989, there is still plenty to find.

"We don't even go into the ship itself," Nargeolet said. "The are plenty of artifacts on the ocean floor."

Much like other recent exhibits at the Franklin Institute (like the just completed Dead Sea Scrolls), the museum has set up an entire experience.

When you enter the exhibit, you are greeted by a faithful reproduction of the grand staircase made famous by the "Titanic" movie. At the bottom of the middle railing sits a cherub holding a lantern which is an original Titanic piece being showcased for the first time.

You then walk into a first-class cabin, follow through a ship's hallway and, for the first time, can read passenger stories and see remnants of the lives they left on the ship.

There are the usual things like china, watches, eye glasses, bottles and pieces of the ship. There are also some things that make you think, like postcards that somehow survived under water all these years, a full man's suit and a nearly fully intact bowler hat.

Lach told a story about when a leather roll was discovered on the bottom. When the scientists unwound the wrap, they found several small vials that once belonged to a perfume salesman lost when the ship went down.

"It was pretty amazing when they opened the bottles, a beautiful scent of perfume filled the room," Lach said. "It's those kid of amazing stories we hope to tell here."

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