[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 2 (Friday, January 5, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E11]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           THE PATERSON GREAT FALLS NATIONAL PARK ACT OF 2007

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BILL PASCRELL, JR.

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 4, 2007

  Mr. PASCRELL. Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure today to introduce the 
Paterson Great Falls National Park Act of 2007. 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, New Jersey. 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 modem 
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, the 
late 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.''
  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. Editorial 
boards, federal, state, and local officials and community groups have 
also endorsed the campaign to award a National Park Service designation 
to the Falls.
  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. It is a little known fact 
that L'Enfant was hired by Hamilton to create Paterson as the sister 
city to Washington, DC, having completed his plan of Washington only 
months before arriving in Paterson.
  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.
  Madam 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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