You could have stood on Bridge Street in Frenchtown on Nov. 25, 1915, and gotten a look at the genuine, one and only Liberty Bell.
Here's how that happened: A petition signed by 500,000 children in California convinced Philadelphia's reluctant and protective city fathers to send the iconic ton of fragile metal to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco so they could see it. The Bell had hung in the tower of Independence Hall and had been rung on many occasions dear to the hearts of patriots. For its transcontinental trip, it was supported above and below by an ornate-but-stout wooden frame on a flatcar that had brass railings around its perimeter to protect the bell from the public. A few flags completed the display.
Coming and going to the exhibition, the Bell took inefficient routes that enabled an estimated quarter of the U.S. population to get a look at it, including an iconoclastic boy in Spokane who hit it with a rock. Damped down as it was by its supports, it probably didn't ring.
Frenchtown's moment came on the homeward trip. The Patriotic Sons of American were ready to give the Bell a wreath or bouquet, but the train was running late and merely slowed down. That was the Bell's last road trip.
Comentarios