Re-enactment December 25, 2005

This re-enactment has been going on for years -- we finally caught up with it! It was a soggy day, but relatively warm for Christmas day. The worst of the rain kindly held off until near the end. The event is held at Washington Crossing State Park -- both New Jersey and Pennsylvania have parks on their respective sides of the Delaware River, a few miles north of Trenton, NJ and Yardley, PA.

The boats are locally made "Durham" boats of forty and forty-four feet in length and displacing about 6000 pounds. Propulsion is via the fifteen foot oars seen in the pictures, with a "sweep" used for steering.

After some setbacks, General George Washington's troops made this crossing on Christmas day 1776, ferrying cannon, horses and troops to the New Jersey side under cover of darkness. They were able to surprise the British/Hessian troops in Trenton and change the fortunes of the American Revolution.