Results tagged “parkservice”

Edward Pettit wrote an enlightening cover story for this week's edition of the City Paper, proposing the relocation of Edgar Allan Poe's grave site to our fine city.

National Park, NJ (Population 3223), is a small borough on the Delaware River with a deceptive name. It's a normal town in Gloucester County, completely enclosed by West Deptford Township and the river, that has no affiliation with the National Park Service.

Before National Park was formally incorporated in 1902, its land was the site of Fort Mercer. Along with Fort Mifflin, directly across the river in South Philly, Fort Mercer was created to protect the city from British attack during the Revolutionary War. The famous Battle of Red Bank, a decisive Continental Army victory, took place at the current location of the Red Bank Battlefield County Park.

(Information Source: Wikipedia)



The park is a great place to take a walk along the isolated shoreline and feel completely alone, despite the city in full view, large container ships passing on the river, and low-flying planes landing right across the river at Philadelphia International. My experience at the park was pleasant, but then turned pretty strange.



More photos and the strange story in the continuation.

Or, at least, not putting up any new ones for now.



In a victory for Philadelphians and all Americans, on Friday the National Park Service announced that a proposal to enclose Independence Hall within a security fence has been scrapped [Philly.com]. If realized, the plan would have cut Independence Square in half with a six-foot tall black iron barricade, hypocritically restricting access to one of the world's most important symbols of freedom.

After releasing the plan, the NPS also allowed for a period of public commentary, accepting thoughts from citizens via their website. Apparently the people of Philadelphia and elsewhere turned up in droves to criticize the proposal, fueled by local blog protests like this one on phillyskyline.com. In that entry, author Brad Maule summarized the problem this way:



Comments from Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pa) during Friday's press conference implied that the local outcry was the main reason for reconsideration of the proposal. The public's statements resonated so well, in fact, that some of the "temporary" bicycle barricades we've endured at the site for years will also be removed. Security upgrades moving forward will focus more on improving "human resources."

This is great news. Thank you, National Park Service, for trashing this ill-conceived plan.

On a sunny, warm October afternoon, we thought the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site didn’t look too scary. It’s a red brick house that sits on the corner of 7th Street and Spring Garden, looking a little out of place among the newer, uglier buildings. But Poe lived there for about a year, and that was enough to make it the site chosen by the National Park Service as their memorial to this great writer.