welcome everybody uh you know honored to be here today to welcome Senator Booker uh and see see everybody here today um proud of the partnership the city of bargate and sa Lucy committee uh have for our for our wonderful elephant uh many good things to come we certainly appreciate the support of Senator Booker and uh look forward to the the new Renovations on the interior and certainly the interpretive Center that's that's on the horizon so we can have accessibility uh for all to the elephant and just again honored to be here and appreciate you all coming thank you thank you and now it gives me great great pleasure to introduce our United States Senator Corey Booker thank you everybody this is extraordinary this is powerfully prodigious padm um and uh I'm just really excited I I since I have a kid coming down to this incredible Community this elephant has stood out in my life elephants don't forget and neither do I will forget my childhood of and and know how special this is it literally is the oldest Roadside Attraction as you all know uh in our entire nation uh that is still existing and it goes back to the 1800s it is something that's special it's part of our heritage and we should do everything we can to support and preserve it you know New Jersey is one of the most productive economics States in all of America and we send a lot of our tax dollars down and what me and other members of the delegation said forget partisanship our job is to bring back dollars uh and to reinvest in our state especially in things that're going to produce uh a a multiplier effect in terms of economic activity we know this is part of our great tourist industry we know this is something uh that is special and so being able to secure a half aill dollar to help the interior not only be more accessible which is important because we are a nation that believes in inclusion but also to make sure that we create an even more viable attraction for many people to enjoy for years to come oh no no no you can hold the end right here first so Lucy was built in 1881 by a man named James La her original purpose was as a real estate gimmick to help attract sales in the air she lost on her two block Journey oh wow oh W and are these some original St Lu Lu they are yes oh my gosh all s of old arct that's amazing skyl oh that was this was the original class how did you fall down just over the years is replaced we don't really know how they got it up and this door of course Le the TRU which I've always said they should convert into a water slide this is incredible just to see a relax [Music]