On short afternoon walks from my suburban hometown, I pass neat rows of houses and a busy county road, and then just yards away I seamlessly pass into the Revolutionary War era.
Sure, I can see a shopping mall beyond the trees in the distance, and I know there's an Applebee's and Home Depot just down the road, but here -- at Historic New Bridge Landing Park -- an abundance of trees creates the illusion of a time bubble.
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| From top: Steuben House, Campbell-Christie House, my favorite barn at sunset. |
It's quiet here, and in recent COVID days I often have the place to myself and pretend I am haunting it.
You can read all about the park, download resources, hear podcasts and take virtual video tours at a Bergen County Historical Society website. It describes the site this way:
"Historic New Bridge Landing preserves a compelling and scenic fragment of the Jersey Dutch countryside, strategically situated at the narrows of the Hackensack River and famed for its compelling role in the Revolutionary War. Its distinctive antique dwellings, artifact collections and scenic landscapes are uniquely reminiscent of a vanished folk culture, dependent upon the tidal river as a commercial artery and a self-renewing source of nourishment and industrial power."
Here are some images to help you set the scene. The locally iconic red barn is my favorite.
Stop by for a visit some day. See hello, if you see me, or my ghost, wandering the grounds, taking photos.
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| Various views of "New Bridge," constructed in 1889 on the site of "the bridge that saved a nation." You can look it up 🙂 |
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| Pre-COVID old-time baseball games and dances. Bottom right, a peak behind locked doors in March 2021. |
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