Trenton - NJ Capital
I Hadn’t planned to spend ten days in Hartford. Night temperatures are dropping below 40F forcing me to shift my itinerary. I decided that I would travel further south to Maryland where the forecast was warmer than in New Jersey and Delaware. I would stop in the capitals and save the other sites for a future trip.
Ideally, I would have taken backroads to New Jersey, but the route would have taken eleven hours. The traffic started getting heavy, but long stand stills traffic were limited. It had been a few years since I made this drive and it seems that EZ-Pass and road improvements have made a significant difference in road congestion. In New Jersey, I saw some really crazy driving. On a stretch of 3 lane highway, a car traveling at high speeds came from the far left lane in front of me in the far right lane and passed a car on the berm. About thirty minutes later, I could see his car smashed up in the woods. There were tire marks going from the right side of the highway and into the woods.
Oct 19 - Trenton
I arrived in Trenton, NJ around 2:00 pm and could partially see the capitol dome as I pulled off the interstate. I drove past the building two times before I realized it was the capital building. The building was shrouded in scaffolding and tarps on one side for a renovation project that has been underway for two years.
The capital building was originally built overlooking the Delaware river with a beautiful promenade leading down steps to the river. It is tragic how they’ve destroyed the beauty of the capital area. Most capitals are surrounded by greens and invite the public to come to their capital.
Capital buildings are the center of government and a symbol of our way of being governed. To build an interstate highway between the river and capital building is lacking any forethought for what the capital stands for. Why not build an interstate in front of the White House.
NJ Capitol: View from promenade
I had to walk some distance to get a view of the capitol dome. One person told me, “If you drive out of town on 295, you can get a view from one of the bridges.” As if I would stop to take pictures on an Interstate bridge.
On one side of the capital are legislative offices and a promenade connects it with the New Jersey Museum. The promenade is expansive and connects the various state office buildings. From the back of the promenade is an unobstructed view of the capital. This is the place someone would have to walk to get a view of the capital building.
On the backside of the capital is a WWII memorial. I couldn’t find an installation date, but it looked new. There was a timeline of events leading up to and through the end of the war. The memorial is dedicated to Americans that fought in the war. It is mostly a history of battles the united States was involved with and leaves out other campaigns fought by other forces.
There is a New Jersey Museum beside the capital. I wanted to visit but there were restrictions on my camera bag. I did visit the 9/11 museum which was in the building beside the NJ Museum. In that area there didn’t seem to be any bag restrictions. I didn’t see anyone else in the museums. The 9/11 museum was small and had artifacts from the building. One woman’s computer case was recovered and the story of her survival was written up.
As I walked around the capital, I had a sense of things being rundown. I went to the war memorial and the water pond was dried up, the wall collapsing, the flag pole rusted and damage around the memorial. New Jersey is one of the richest states in the nation and the capital sits in one of the wealthiest counties anywhere. They are renovating the capital, but more money seems to be needed to renovate other areas of the capital.
Some of the buildings on the back side of the capital have been renovated and maintained. These buildings are across the street from the State Museum.
I still had daylight and decided to drive to the Delaware capital which was a complete surprise