An Interview with the T

At our last meeting, the exhibit design team, sculptors Bruce Lindsay and Kate Graves, had invited the rest of us to their studio to view the T in situ. On the appointed Saturday, I headed out to the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ, to meet up with Bruce and Kate, only to turn around when I saw the line of cars waiting to enter the Grounds for the family-friendly event scheduled that day.

My visit was rescheduled for April 24, primary election day in Pennsylvania, and a work holiday for me because it's a holy day of obligation for many in the county government that employs me. So, on Tuesday afternoon, I again drove to NJ to visit the T in its temporary lodgings in the Johnson Atelier, the workshop for the Grounds for Sculpture and for artists who rent space there. I was greeted with a bloodcurdling squawk by an albino peacock.

The Grounds for Sculpture occupies 42 acres on the former site of the New Jersey State Fairgrounds.

 

I reverently viewed the T, a truly imposing 10-foot letter of white metal. Bruce pointed out where the mounting brackets had been and displayed a transformer box that had been removed from the T. New, larger letters now spell out “TRENTON MAKES THE WORLD TAKES” on the Lower Trenton Bridge, and they are illuminated by LEDs, which are cheaper and easier to maintain than the old neon.  The history of the removal and replacement of the slogan seems to be hazy, and would be an interesting topic to research.    

Richard Hunter, the project manager, and his colleague, Patrick Harshberger, the bridge maven, had been there the day before.  Patrick reportedly had waxed eloquent on the subject of the Warren truss, a device that looks like a "W" composed of equilateral triangles, which is one of the devices that holds the Trenton Makes bridge together. As recounted by Bruce, the Warren truss is an effective means of buttressing steel, but not wood or wrought iron, because it requires simultaneous compression and tension to function.  

Warren truss diagram

Double Warren truss bridge over the Delaware River at Washington Crossing, PA