Trenton World War II Memorial

While I was in Trenton last weekend I stopped to check out the World War II memorial on West State Street.  It’s right across the street from the New Jersey State House.  I haven’t seen any other World War II memorials so I can’t compare it to any others, but I will say it is something cool to check out if you are in the area.  It wasn’t particularly large, it only filled one lot.

The whole memorial was done in granite.  The centerpiece of memorial was the Victory Dome which housed a statue of Lady Liberty, not to be confused with the Statue of Liberty which is just a different redition of Lady Liberty.  Lady Liberty held a garland in her right hand and a sword in her left; probably symbolizing prosperity and strength although don’t quote me on that as I’m not too sure.  But if anyone does know, feel free to help me out, I’d like to find out for sure.  The dome was surrounded by six individual pillars, each commerating a soldier from New Jersey who was bestowed, posthumously, with a Medal of Honor.  I thought it was a great touch to the memorial.

The dome was flanked on both sides by two curved, granite walls.  The one on the left was dedicated to the Pacific theater and the right one was the European and Northern Africa/Middle East theater.  Each wall displayed a timeline of the war in their respective theater and showed different photographs, mostly notable and quite famous ones; such as a picture of the flag raising Marines on Iwo Jima and the sailor kissing a girl in Times Square.

As a somber reminder for all of those who faught and died for us in World War II, a statue of a rifle in the dirt with a helmet on top stands behind the dome, reminding all those who see it of the tremendous sacrifices our freedom requires.

Trip To TrenTon

    I got the call from my mechanic the other day and as soon as the snow cleared out I hitched a ride home with my roommate.  I picked up my car and left this morning with the intention of checking out the New Jersey State Museum but, when I got there, I found the parking garage was closed. 

    This wasn’t all too bad though; there is plenty to do in Trenton’s Capitol Complex.  If you walk down West State Street you will come across the Thomas Edison State College, the State House, the WWII Memorial, the State Library and the State Museum which now has a planetarium apparently.  Right around the corner from all of this is the Old Barracks Museum, a Masonic Temple and another War Memorial.  I suggest parking in the Hotel and Public Parking garage on South Warren as it is considerably cheaper than the other parking lots and garages I passed: I paid $4 for two hours.

•     The Old Barracks Museum, on the aptly named Barracks Street, is open daily from 10am-5pm.  For the walk-in tours adults will pay $8, seniors and students $6, and kids who are under five get to waltz in free of charge.  If you are traveling in a group of fifteen or more you need to set up a reservation ahead of time by calling 609-396-1776 (the number is a coincidence, I assure you).  The museum offers a number of different group tours that you can look into by visiting their website  http://www.barracks.org/activities/group-tours.html.

 

• The New Jersey State Library is open for the perusal of its collection, which boasts 185,000 non-fiction titles, Monday through Friday from 8:30-5.  It used to be open on Saturdays until budget cuts crept up; it has always been closed on Sundays.  The primary goal for the New Jersey State Library is to provide library resources to the New Jersey State government–which is why it is literally right next to the state house, but they do welcome all of you avid civilian readers.  You can visit their site here at http://www.njstatelib.org/.

 

•  The New Jersey State Museum, which I will definitely get to sometime soon, has a shit ton of things to do and see.  If you check out their website, http://www.state.nj.us/state/museum/index.htm, it is readily apparent you could easily spend an entire day there.

 

• If you are a Freemason, or just intrigued about how much they actually did do establish our country, they offer free tours of their lodge daily.  Visit their sight to find out the times as they are different each day: http://www.mercer50.com/2009_patriots_week.htm (for patriotic fervor, crank the volume on your computer, its hard to hear the music).