2019-04-14 - Freewalkers Between Walk
The Freewalkers Between Walk is a 12.5 mile trot between the New Brunswick Train Station, NJ and the Metropark Train Station at Iselin, NJ. Six of us started moving at 8:50 AM, following Charles through familiar suburban streets, roads, and paved trails along the East Coast Greenway.
The Light Dispelling Darkness Sculpture is a federally-funded fountain designed in 1937 by Waylande Gregory and unveiled in 1938 in Roosevelt Park in Edison, NJ. He was the director of Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration Sculpture Project and Federal Arts Program in New Jersey. The sculpture celebrates Thomas Edison's triumph of light over darkness and the theme of conquering darkness through enlightenment. The central base is filled with images of science, technology, industry, and education depicted below a 5-ton globe of the Earth in hand-painted glaze all within a 40-foot diameter pool. Six viaducts arch from the central base each symbolizing an evil of society - the four Horsemen (Death, Famine, War, Conquest), Greed, and Materialism - fleeing from the light. Death is a skeleton, War a Roman warrior wearing a WWI gas mask, Greed entwined octopi, Famine a cadaverous lady, and Pestilence a blue woman with yellow sports under a horse. The sculptures were made out of terra cotta and did not age well outdoors. The fountain was rebuilt and re-unveiled to the public in 2004.
(https://weirdnj.com/stories/light-dispelling-darkness/, https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/16870)
About a mile away is the 118-feet tall World's Largest Light Bulb Tower topped by a 14-feet tall 8-ton light bulb built a year earlier at the Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park along with a museum and grounds. This tower and museum was built in 1938 marking the site of Edison's greatest achievements including the invention of the recorded sound and the light bulb unveiled on December 31, 1879.
(https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11143)
(https://weirdnj.com/stories/light-dispelling-darkness/, https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/16870)
About a mile away is the 118-feet tall World's Largest Light Bulb Tower topped by a 14-feet tall 8-ton light bulb built a year earlier at the Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park along with a museum and grounds. This tower and museum was built in 1938 marking the site of Edison's greatest achievements including the invention of the recorded sound and the light bulb unveiled on December 31, 1879.
(https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11143)
I ran from the center to the nearby Metropark train station to catch my train back home. Thanks to the other walkers for the great company on the walk!