From the Fort Lee Archives: Mayor Sokolich, the Sprit of 1776 and the George Washington Bridge

This blog / column since its inception several years ago has attempted to tell the story of Fort Lee through tales of  our history, our sites and our people.  This week’s blog will center on two people, General George Washington and Mayor Mark Sokolich and one historic site, the George Washington Bridge.

I am a fourth generation resident of Fort Lee whose grandfather worked on the building of the George Washington Bridge.  That same grandfather grew up on a small farm in the late 1890's where the GWB approaches in Fort Lee sit today.

I can only speak as a lifelong resident of Fort Lee, and politics aside, how dare any public servant use the George Washington Bridge for political payback – this culture of bullyism is outrageous and the hacks responsible messed with something they should never have touched, perhaps the greatest bridge in the world named after clearly the greatest President in our nation’s history.

George Washington named my town, first Fort Constitution and then Fort Lee in the fateful year of 1776. Here patriot and soldier Thomas Paine wrote of the times that tried men's souls in his American Crisis, and here 3,000 of General Washington's troops encamped and lived and fought in Fort Lee in 1776.  Something in me says that General Washington himself had a hand in the exposure of this farce. Thanks to our young Mayor Mark Sokolich for taking to the airwaves last night and fighting for all of us in Fort Lee. Had he entered the breach before the facts came out, before it was clearly proven that this was political payback, he would have been wrong. But our Mayor held his fire and now he is fighting for Fort Lee and his is putting the "Fort" back into Fort Lee, my hometown that was born out of the fire of the American Revolution.

There is a scene in the great Frank Capra classic film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) where young new Senator Jefferson Smith (portrayed winningly by James Stewart) has been betrayed by some reporters who set him up to look ridiculous in some photos published that day.  Senator Smith tracks them down and at one point punches one of the reporters in the nose and when the reporter looks up he sees a portrait of General George Washington and for a moment he thought Washington himself delivered retribution for the falsehood.  Here is the clip in question - http://movieclips.com/gqXu-mr-smith-goes-to-washington-movie-the-truth-for-a-change/

  As a lifelong citizen of Fort Lee I thank  our own version of Jefferson Smith, Mayor Sokolich, for his belief in the spirit of 1776 in Fort Lee and for his defense of our George Washington Bridge.  That is something General Washington would and probably is proud of, so a tip of our tricorn hat to General Washington and Mayor Sokolich.