In the early 1900s, a line of massive steam shovels clawed into the hillsides of Panama. The air was thick, the ground unforgiving. Each scoop lifted tons of earth and rock as engineers raced to complete one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in history. Many of those machines carried the same name stamped into their steel frames: Bucyrus.

That name still lingers. Inside the Bucyrus Museum in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the story of American heavy machinery unfolds through photographs, scale models and the lived memories of the workers who built equipment that didn’t just move dirt: It moved history.

As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, the museum offers a patriotic lens into how the canals, highways, railroads and mines that stitched this country together were built by machines born in American factories.