Trenton, New Jersey: Where the Safety Net Ends

In 1916, Trenton was the first scheduled stop on Alice Burke and Nell Richardson’s epic 10,700-mile journey — just 67 miles from where they’d started in New York City, but a world away in terms of what it meant. 

Up to Trenton, the two suffragists had been escorted by representatives of the Saxon automobile dealership. When they rolled out of Trenton the following morning at 8:00 a.m., they were on their own. No escort. No safety net. Just the Golden Flyer, the open road, and a cause that couldn’t wait.

A telegram published in the New York Tribune on April 6, 1916 captured the moment with characteristic understatement: the women had made the trip from New York “without an adverse incident.” What it didn’t say was that the real journey — the one without guardrails — was just beginning.

One hundred and ten years later, on March 2nd the Golden Flyer II rolled into Trenton with its own milestone to make.

Mayor Gusciora didn’t stop at accepting the award. He stepped up to the petition and signed Sign4ERA.org, joining a growing coalition of mayors urging Congress to affirm the ERA as the 28th Amendment. The message to Capitol Hill is getting harder to ignore: elected officials at every level are on record. The question is when Congress will catch up.

And then — because this campaign has a way of producing moments you couldn’t script — Mayor Gusciora became the first mayor in America to take the Golden Flyer II for a spin.

When Alice and Nell left Trenton in 1916, they had shed their escort and set out to prove that two women could drive across a continent and change a nation’s mind. The Golden Flyer II leaves Trenton with fresh signatures, a new champion, and the same conviction.

The road south is open. The ERA is not done waiting.

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Sign the petition at Sign4ERA.org

PS. In arrival in Trenton our Road Team while trying to find a suitable parking spot was confronted with curious police wondering “What’s in the trailer?” When Golden Flyer II was revealed one of the officers was so excited he went home and found this article about the Golden Flyer II’s origin story on thedrive.com.