There is good news about Camden. Really.
By: Michael Redmond
Camden rocks.
Yes, that’s right, you read correctly Camden, New Jersey, the city there seems to be nothing but bad news about. A recent national survey ranked Camden as the fifth most dangerous city in America, with Trenton ranking 14th and Newark 22nd. This was good news for Camden, actually. In 2004 and 2005, Camden was ranked No. 1.
Why visit a city with such a intimidating reputation? Because the bad news isn’t the whole story, not by a long shot, and because Camden has attractions not to be found elsewhere. The fact is, if you decide to visit the Camden Waterfront, you won’t exactly qualify as a pioneer.
People who have been paying even a modicum of attention should have heard something about the revival of the Camden Waterfront, which sits right next to the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. It’s a spectacular site.
The Camden Waterfront is home to the Battleship New Jersey Museum and Memorial, an awe-inspiring floating city that attracts 250,000 visitors a year; Adventure Aquarium (formerly the New Jersey State Aquarium), which clocked 1 million visitors between May 2005 and May 2006; the Tweeter Center (formerly the South Jersey Performing Arts Center), a state-of-the art amphitheater that converts into an all-weather theater, and the Camden Riversharks, the minor league baseball team that plays in Campbell’s Field, which was designated independent baseball’s "park of the year" in 2005 and 2006 by Baseball America.
What a lot of people also need to realize is that visitors to Camden have been coming from all over the world and are continuing to come from all over the world to spend some time in a modest two-story clapboard house that would attract no attention whatsoever were it not the house where Walt Whitman (1819-1892), "the poet of democracy," spent his last years.
A short drive across town, Whitman is entombed in Harleigh Cemetery, a feast of Victorian landscape and monument design, which draws his admirers, as well. People leave things there flowers, notes, other tributes. Lovers carve messages into the trees that flank the tomb.
A National Historic Landmark and a New Jersey State Historic Site, the Walt Whitman House underwent a major restoration in 1995. "Virtually everything" in it is the poet’s, including the bed he died in. There are no ropes or barricades. Small groups are escorted through the house and into the garden behind it by knowledgeable and sympathetic guides, such as site historian Richard Dyer.
"People just want to feel what it’s like to be in Walt’s place," Mr. Dyer says. "For them, it’s like a cathedral."
Get that "Walt?" That’s pretty much the way people there speak of Whitman, as if they knew him personally, as if any minute now he’ll round the corner and walk into the parlor.
While the charms of the Whitman House are its intimacy and its evocation of a more innocent America, just two blocks west lies the waterfront itself, with its large-scale, exhilarating and family-friendly attractions. A mile-long waterside promenade links everything there, including a park and a small marina.
The Battleship New Jersey "the Big J," the most decorated warship in American naval history towers over the waterfront. As one observer was heard to say, "When they saw something like this coming in their direction, they must have thought it was a real good idea to be friends with America."
The battleship was launched on Dec. 7, 1942 one year to the day after Pearl Harbor and saw action during World War II, Korea and Vietnam. An interesting fact was that half the builders of this floating behemoth were women. There’s an exhibit onboard in tribute to all those sisters of "Rosie the Riveter."
In its fifth year as a public facility, the battleship offers various guided tours most of them for the agile and the adventurous, please note and fields an impressive variety of educational programs for young people. Talk about an unforgettable outing: Scouts and student groups can experience the ship as the sailors did by staying onboard overnight. They sleep in the original bunks and eat in the original mess hall.
The ship is also popular as a singular setting for social and corporate events. An all-weather tent on the fantail can accommodate 400 people. In good weather, especially, it must be something else to watch the sun go down over the Delaware as the lights of center-city Philadelphia come up.
Last but by no means least is the aptly named Adventure Aquarium, which was bursting to the seams with kids during our visit kids "of all ages," I might add, as there’s plenty to keep adults fascinated, too. This stunning 200,000-square-foot facility is home to 450 species and 6,000 creatures. Within the complex are two million gallons of salt and fresh water.
It isn’t every day that you get to witness the peculiar grace of a three-ton hippo doing a water ballet or walk through a 40-foot tunnel surrounded top and sides by live sharks, which are very beautiful, in their own way. They’ve got seals, they’ve got penguins (the inside scoop is that they have rather nasty dispositions, these cuties), they’ve got free-flying African birds. You can even touch, literally, a very well-fed baby shark.
In sum, Camden rocks. Having been, would I go back? Yes, indeed.
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IF YOU GO: As is the case for most any city in America, you just have to know a few things before you set out for Camden where you’re going, the right time to be going, and how to get going. All of this information, and more, is available on user-friendly Web sites (see below). And if that’s not good enough for you, call South Jersey Tourism at (856) 757-9400.
Directions from the New Jersey Turnpike: Take Exit 4 to Route 73 North. Take I-295 South to Exit 26. Follow signs for Camden and I-676. Take Exit 5A for Mickle Boulevard/Camden Waterfront. Note: Mickle Boulevard is also known as Martin Luther King Boulevard. Turn right at traffic light onto Mickle Boulevard/MLK Boulevard. The Walt Whitman House is on Mickle Boulevard/MLK Boulevard two blocks from the Camden Waterfront.
On the Web: www.visitsouthjersey.com, www.camdenwaterfront.com.