[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 122 (Tuesday, September 26, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1831]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           THE PATERSON GREAT FALLS NATIONAL PARK ACT OF 2006

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BILL PASCRELL, JR.

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 26, 2006

  Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure today to introduce the 
Paterson Great Falls National Park Act of 2006. This bipartisan 
legislation is cosponsored by every Member of the New Jersey 
congressional delegation, and would designate a national park at the 
majestic Great Falls in Paterson, NJ. I urge my colleagues to pass this 
legislation as soon as possible.
  Fifteen miles west of New York City, the Great Falls was the second 
largest waterfall in colonial America. No other natural wonder in 
America has played such an important role in our Nation's historic 
quest for freedom and prosperity. At the Great Falls, Alexander 
Hamilton conceived and implemented a plan to harness the force of water 
to power the new industries that would secure our economic 
independence.
  Hamilton told Congress and the American people that at the Great 
Falls he would begin implementation of his ambitious strategy to 
transform a rural agrarian society dependent upon slavery into a modern 
economy based on freedom. True to Hamilton's vision, Paterson became a 
great manufacturing city, producing the Colt revolver, the first 
submarine, the aircraft engine for the first trans-Atlantic flight, 
more locomotives than any city in the Nation, and more silk than any 
city in the world.
  New Jersey's Great Falls is the only National Historic District that 
includes both a National Natural Resource and a National Historic 
Landmark. In a special Bicentennial speech in Paterson with the 
spectacular natural beauty of the Great Falls in the background, 
President Gerald R. Ford said, ``We can see the Great Falls as a symbol 
of the industrial might which helps to make America the most powerful 
nation in the world.''
  The preeminent Hamilton biographers, an esteemed former Smithsonian 
Institution curator, the former chief of the National Park Service 
Historic American Engineering Record, and distinguished professors at 
Yale, Princeton, Harvard, NYU, Brown and other universities have filed 
letters with the National Park Service strongly recommending a National 
Historical Park for the Great Falls Historic District.
  Scholars have concluded that Pierre L'Enfant's innovative water power 
system in Paterson, and many factories built later, constitute the 
finest remaining collection of engineering and architectural structures 
representing each stage of America's progress from a weak agrarian 
society to a leader in the global economy. Editorial boards, Federal, 
State, and local officials and community groups have also strongly 
endorsed the campaign to award a National Park Service designation to 
the falls.
  This proposed national park would also encompass historic Hinchliffe 
Stadium, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places by 
the National Park Service in 2004. This stadium, built in 1932, is 
adjacent to the Great Falls and was home to the New York Black Yankees. 
Baseball legend Larry Doby played in Hinchliffe Stadium both as a star 
high school athlete and again as a Negro League player, shortly before 
becoming the first African-American to play in the American League.
  I am grateful to the National Park Service for its diligent work on 
the Great Falls National Park feasibility study, which was authorized 
by an act of Congress in 2001. Officials at the National Park Service 
have done meticulous, thorough work and acted with the utmost 
professionalism as they compiled this study, which is scheduled to be 
released for public comment in early October 2006. While I am confident 
that, given the criteria, the National Park Service study will 
recommend choosing the Great Falls as a national park, in the end it 
will only present recommendations. National Park Service units are 
designated by Congress, and it is imperative that we begin the process 
of selecting the Great Falls as a national park site as soon as 
possible.
  Mr. Speaker, Congress must act now to pass this vital piece of 
legislation, so that we may fully recognize these cultural and historic 
landmarks that have played such a seminal role in America's history.

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