A Place to Embrace Freedom
It’s a special place by the Delaware River. Not beautiful or charming. I-95 traffic creates a steady beat against concrete walls. Sweating masonry spans the highway. It is as humid today as it was in 1855.
We’re not artists, but when we left, yesterday evening, the round space at eastern end of the Walnut Street footbridge seemed akin to a deck - a ferryboat deck. Imagine a historical marker in the midst of an installation there. Imagine replicas of ferryboat benches for visitors who would come, sit and hear a thing or two about Jane Johnson and friends. When they’ve had enough of sitting, they’d stand. And when they stood, they’d begin to carry on with the rest of their lives, perhaps feeling a faint shadow of what Jane Johnson felt as she stood and embraced her own sweet freedom that humid July afternoon.
