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Jsnooots t1_j2svqo9 wrote

After the battle the American troops headed north following what would be rt27 from Princeton area towards New Brunswick.

Obviously there was no Carnegie lake but the millstone river was an obstacle.

The American troops crossed and then destroyed the bridge behind them.

It is dangerous to get your troops wet in the winter so that stopped any pursuit that day by the British.

I like to imagine when I'm at the bottom of the lake by the little bridge by the mill what it must have been like to be a soldier at that time. It must have mostly sucked but not that day.

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soltk t1_j2v3u12 wrote

I don’t envy any of those guys.

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Longtermthrowaway5 t1_j2w5b8g wrote

wait, why's it obvious there wasn't a lake there 246 years ago?

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Jsnooots t1_j2weug2 wrote

Andrew Carnegie, the Scottish American industrialist/philanthropist, went to visit Princeton University.

He didn't think you could properly mold a young man with just rough sports, like American Football, so he donated money for a dam on the millstone river that would create Carnegie lake so.....that Princeton University could have men's rowing, a proper gentleman pastime.

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THE_some_guy t1_j2xlals wrote

Supposedly Woodrow Wilson (President of Princeton at the time) quipped about Carnegie "we asked him for bread, but he gave us water".

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Jsnooots t1_j2xomuh wrote

I love that. I didn't know that. Thank you. I find NJ history and how so much history connects through our state fascinating.

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THE_some_guy t1_j2zyros wrote

It may be apocryphal- I'm skeptical that "bread" as slang for money was a thing in 1905, or that Wilson would have used it even if it was.

But if it's a lie, it's an entertaining one.

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moonknight999 t1_j2wh87m wrote

Lmao that's funny when im at that exact same spot i often imagine the same thing

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