WASHINGTON — New Jersey’s delegation to the 119th Congress sent a slim metallic gift to the future that mirrors the state’s polyglot nature as its contribution to a 900-pound memory trove.
To mark the nation’s 250th anniversary, Congress passed legislation to create a time capsule with an opening date of July 4, 2276 — 500 years after the U.S. declared independence from the British monarchy.
“Future generations are going to see what we thought was important, see what we thought was kind of funny and also understand the challenges faced that we didn’t succeed in overcoming,” Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-12th) said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News. “I hope that they see it as inspiration.”
Every state, U.S. territories and the District of Columbia each submitted mementos for the capsule. Most items are in small boxes. New Jersey’s submission: an inscribed stainless steel plate.
“New Jersey sends greetings to the people of 2276, expressing the hope that the values that guide us in 2026 — liberty, opportunity, cooperation, love and respect for one another — continue to shape society 250 years from now,” the plate reads, according to America250, the bipartisan initiative that organized events for the country’s semiquincentennial.
New Jersey’s motto, Liberty and Prosperity, is emblazoned on the back in eight languages. The delegation also submitted a letter. The capsule was to be buried over the weekend in Independence Mall in Philadelphia, where it will be unearthed in 250 years, as federal law directs, for the 224th Congress to crack open.
Watson Coleman, who played an outsize planning role in the semiquincentennial events, was the lead House sponsor of the law to create, fill and bury the capsule.
“It was very exciting to me,” Watson Coleman said, adding that it was refreshing working in a bipartisan fashion on the America 250 Commission.
‘Century Safe’
Department of Commerce technicians built the capsule, a metal drum, to withstand centuries of potential damage. The National Park Service, which manages Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, will maintain and pass down plans to manage the drum.
Time capsules have a history in American politics. In 1976, President Gerald Ford opened the “Century Safe,” created in 1876, and a different capsule was created in 1976 for the bicentennial.
Each state delegation had to pick one item, though members could also submit a letter.
“We threw around a lot of things. Some funny things,” Watson Coleman said. Taylor Ham, Bruce Springsteen and Whitney Houston came up, she said.
“Taylor Ham would probably still be good 250 years from now. Maybe some Spam,” Rep. Rob Menendez (D-8th) joked to NJ Spotlight News.
“Taylor Ham wouldn’t have made it. That’s disgusting,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-5th), adding that he initially thought every member of Congress was able to submit an item.
“We wanted to put in a Bruce ticket from ‘Born in the USA’ or ‘Born to Run.’ I was going to buy an old original ticket,” Gottheimer told NJ Spotlight News.
Will the U.S. exist in 250 years? “Absolutely,” he said. “We are the oldest living and surviving democracy in the world, and I think we will be 250 years from now.”
“I think as a country our best days are ahead of us,” he added. “But if we think we can rest on our laurels, we’ve got another thing coming.”
