The
Historic New Bridge Landing Comprehensive Interpretive Plan, adopted in June 2003, provides the following description of the proposed New Bridge Battle Monument:
New Bridge Battle Monument
The New Bridge Battle Monument will be a figurative representative of a Liberty Pole — a slender column standing atop a square pedestal, surmounted by the figure of Liberty, armed and vigilant, wearing the Liberty Cap (based upon the figure depicted in the Great Seal of the State of New Jersey). Her shield will bear the plow and horse head from the Great Seal. An inscription on a frieze band near the head of the column will identify this figure as “THE SPIRIT OF THE JERSEYS.”
On the face of the base facing Hackensack Avenue, the opening paragraph of Thomas Paine’s
American Crisis will be engraved, reading:
“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now deserves the love, and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet, we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.”
The opposite face of the pedestal will also bear the following extract from the
American Crisis:
“Our first object was to secure the bridge over the Hackensack, which laid up the river between the enemy and us, about six miles from us, and three from them. General Washington arrived in about three quarters of an hour, and marched at the head of the troops towards the bridge, which place I expected we should have a brush for; however, they did not choose to dispute it with us, and the greatest part of our troops went over the bridge, the rest over the ferry, except some which passed at a mill on a small creek, between the bridge and the ferry, and made their way through some marshy grounds up to the town of Hackensack, and there passed the river.”
The face of the pedestal facing north will read:
HISTORIC NEW BRIDGE LANDING
THE BRIDGE THAT SAVED A NATION
NOVEMBER 20-21, 1776
The New Bridge Battle Monument will stand in the center of a landscaped circular plaza in Main Street, allowing local vehicular traffic to pass around it.
