bridge he made it a work of art because he knew these were going to be america's monument in the future. >> look tv is in trenton new jersey to learn more about literary culture. up next we visit the trenton free public library, one of the oldest libraries in the state. >> is rumored to be the first library established in the state of new jersey and the second oldest in the nation. march of 1752, the library first became a prescription library which mean individuals had to pay a small monthly fee in order to take items outside the library. and franklin actually played a huge role in that. benjamin franklin cooperated with individuals from england to have 50 volumes sent to trenton

to establish the first collection. the library was open to the public. anyone was able to come in and do research and so on but an orderly -- in order to physically take out a book and borrow it and take it home you have had to pay a monthly fee. actually that's how we were able to maintain some of the volume today because during the battle of trenton with the british and the hessians they actually burned the original library and the only way we were able to have any of the collection was individuals had to pay a prescription -- subscription fee and have books at home. a few years after the battle there was a plea to those individuals that was published in the newspaper, please bring those volumes back and the library boasts that we have two copies today. they are not in the best of shape but we are still searching our archives to see if there are anymore that exist here.

this is where our archivist lora pohl works. she has pulled out the names, two of the original collections, the two that we can actually locate that were miraculous we saved because they missed the fire of 1776 when the hessians and the british came through during the battle of trenton and they burn burned down the original library. these two were actually in the homes of trenton residents and after the newspaper had put out a request for individuals who had any of the original collections to return, they were able to salvage at least these two. we know that there are rumored to be numerous other copies of the original from ben franklin from his donation however the library is going through an inventory and we hope to be able to find as many of them as possible.

this building was rebuilt in june of 1900 when the groundbreaking began and we didn't officially open until june 9, 1902. 1976 the new it addition was built. this beautiful marble staircase begins of course and are a tram and that leads into our reading room which is located on her mezzanine level. this room used to be used for research when it was first erected in 1915. the previous director following her research and looking at various pictures decided that she wanted to convert it into a beautiful reading room bar patrons would be able to come and enjoy the room. what is really exciting is on

the balcony level there are some aerials where they actually look out onto that portion of the city so those aerials that you see, if those were windows that we would see in 1915. the previous director kimberly matthews researched very long and hard to find out the colors that would have been placed in the room back in 1915 which is how she decided on these particular colors. the most exciting thing about this is these were placed on the ballot by referendum vote by the then mayor, mayor breaks the placed us in a position to where we would never fall under the hands of the public fearing we would never be able to exist so by referendum vote we are secured as a free public library it didn't rely on whether or not someone had the money to thrive

or anything like that. we operate out of the budget that is appropriated by the city of trenton but we are secured in that we will always be a free public library. libraries are amazing institutions in our country. free public libraries are even greater. we have the ability to offer individuals things that they cannot afford or have access to. what is amazing is here in the free public library everyone is equal. doesn't matter if they were persons or you didn't have a penny to your name but what's amazing is you come in the door of a public library you are equal and everyone has access to everything. c-span is in trenton new jersey learning more about the city's literary themes. up next to talk with author david blake about the political endorsement in his book "liking ike".