Mike Kelly: Chalk up another victory at New Bridge Landing
As battlefields go, the stretch of lowland along the Hackensack River isn’t much to look at. For years, it was virtually forgotten by most people, except Revolutionary War buffs.
Not anymore, though.
At long last, New Bridge Landing on the River Edge-Hackensack border has been noticed. But can it be finally saved?
That question has hovered over the New Bridge Landing Park for years like a thick fog. There is no doubt that the site occupies an important spot in U.S. history. Indeed, this columnist has previously argued that New Bridge Landing played one of the most important roles in the early days of the American Revolution.
It was November 1776, only four months after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. George Washington, the commander of the ragtag American army, had taken refuge in a house that stood across from the present site of the Bergen County Courthouse.
Brutal defeats
Washington was in trouble – in danger of losing his job as commander and possibly the war. Since reading the Declaration of Independence to his soldiers in July to great acclaim and fanfare, Washington had endured a series of brutal defeats by British forces. From Brooklyn and Kips Bay and what is now Washington Heights in northern Manhattan, Washington’s forces had been routed again and again. Some even said Washington was incompetent.
In Hackensack, he was trying to regroup – and hoping the British would stay across the Hudson River.
Washington was wrong – again.
Just after dawn on Nov. 20, 1776, the British pulled off one of the most daring military operations in the war. Several thousand British and Hessian soldiers climbed into rowboats and sneaked across the Hudson, out of sight of most of the American soldiers who had camped on the Fort Lee cliffs that now overlook the George Washington Bridge.
After arriving in New Jersey, the British and Hessian troops scaled the Palisades cliffs in Closter, then started marching toward Fort Lee, hoping to surprise and capture some 2,700 Americans there.
Washington heard of the sudden British invasion. He saddled his horse and galloped from Hackensack to Englewood, where he joined up with American soldiers who were rapidly retreating from Fort Lee.
But where to go?
Outnumbered
Washington could not stand and fight. British units outnumbered his soldiers. What’s more, the Americans were disorganized and had left large amounts of equipment at Fort Lee when they left in a rush.
Washington needed a barrier to stop the British. But what?
He looked toward New Bridge Landing and the Hackensack River, and devised what turned out to be a brilliant escape plan.
The landing was the site of one of the only bridges across the Hackensack River. If Washington could get his troops over the bridge before the British arrived, he could destroy the bridge and gain some breathing room.
How close were the British and Hessians? As Washington’s troops marched toward the river, they could turn and see the bayonets from the British and Hessian troops gleaming in the autumn sunlight. It’s little wonder that Thomas Paine, the essayist who was traveling with Washington’s soldiers that day, later summed up the retreat with these famous words: “These are the times that try men’s souls.”
With little time to spare, Washington reached the Hackensack River. The American soldiers marched across the wooden bridge at New Bridge Landing. Then, with British scouts bearing down, a team of American soldiers burned the bridge.
The British and Hessian forces were trapped on one side of the Hackensack River and Washington had time to escape farther into New Jersey. It was only a one-day head start before the British figured out how to cross the Hackensack, but it was enough for Washington’s soldiers. They marched the length of New Jersey and crossed the Delaware River and found refuge in Pennsylvania.
A month later, on Christmas 1776, Washington staged a surprise attack on British and Hessian forces in Trenton – a victory that historians credit with turning the tide of the revolution.
But without New Bridge Landing and the Hackensack River, Washington might not have made it to Trenton. By Christmas, he may have been in a British prison or already dead.
That legacy of New Bridge Landing has been a rallying cry – indeed, a battle cry – for North Jersey history buffs for years. The site was designated as a state park. But the area seemed to get no respect.
Garden apartments sprouted on the southern end, along with an electrical transformer station. To the west and north sat a junkyard for auto parts. And the site itself had such poor drainage that it regularly flooded in heavy rains.
New Bridge Landing may have been historic, but it had become an embarrassing eyesore.
No longer dependent
Hopefully that will change, thanks to new legislation that turns over control of the park to a special commission. No longer will the park depend on funding from the state Division of Parks and Forestry. New Bridge Landing will have its own funding source in the state budget. The idea is that New Bridge’s needs will not get lost amid the bureaucracy of state Division of Parks. It will have its own budget.
Just as important, the auto junkyard is being cleaned up by the state Department of Environmental Protection. And there is even talk of moving those ugly electrical transformers and building a walkway along the river.
It may take several more years before all the pieces fall into place. But at long last, New Bridge Landing seems to be winning its battle for survival.
It’s about time.
(Mike Kelly is a Record columnist. Contact him at kellym@northjersey.com.)
*************************************************************************
What? No mention of the real hero - the guy depicted on the patch below?
(I got this for 99 cents on eBay)
.
