Philip Robbins, Titusville
If a 15-ton or a 25-ton capacity bridge is built across Jacobs Creek, at what we know to be Gen. George Washington’s fording point, it will be another sad commentary about our New Jersey esteem for national heritage. Think about how we stack up to the preservation standards of the other colony states. Take for example, the images that are conjured with states like, Virginia, Massachusetts or New Hampshire. I wish our county was as serious, and that preservation was as well funded, as is the case in Somerset County.
A place like Gen. Washington’s fording point on Jacobs Creek would be a curious thing to a Californian who read D.F. Hackett’s book. Many Americans would outwardly display a sense of pride in the moment our beleaguered Continental Army bested the Hessians in the 11th hour. Therefore, this site has unquestionable national significance. Ironically, I think we locals are desensitized to how lucky we are to live in a place that marks the battle line of humanity’s shift from church-states and monarchies to Republics, with social contracts. This battle is to New Jersey what Bunker Hill or the siege of Boston is to New England.
This site is important to all American citizens. Any enhancement to the flow of traffic through that area will pervert and diminish the monumentality of the site and its significance. This was not just a skirmish in the war against the British; this was David taking it to Goliath down in Trenton. The mental image of a scrappy band of brothers stokes a strong sense of national pride; and, that it happened here, where we live — makes us lucky to live an interesting area. Do we have to accept this plan, or, shouldn’t we reject endorsing any plan that mars a site of national significance?
