State Sen. Patrick Diegnan Jr., chair of the chamber’s transportation committee, said New Jersey doesn’t do enough to celebrate its historical roots.
“It drives me nuts,” he said. “If you go up to Boston, you [will] think that everything in the Revolutionary War took place in Boston. This is so important to celebrate what a great, special state we live in and how essential this state is to our democracy, to the United States of America.”
There are other historical sites on the map with ties to the nation’s history that can be accessed by NJ Transit services, including the final resting place for famed poet Walt Whitman in Camden and the Burlington County Prison Museum.
The map is also part of a broader effort by the state to mark America’s birthday in 2026, officials said. Mike Keeler, communications manager for Crossroads of the American Revolution and Revolution NJ, said “a big, long party” is being planned starting next Fourth of July.
“Our history in Jersey doesn’t even really get going until that fall, and Washington crosses the Delaware in December … at which point we start a seven-year run through the American Revolution,” he said. “There will be people alive that will be 5 or 6 years old when this is over, who aren’t even alive yet.”
