Jersey Proud: France’s ‘Merci Train’ arrives in Weehawken Feb. 7, 1949
By: News 12 Staff Feb 8, 2022, 3:56am Updated on: Feb 8, 2022
It was on this date, Feb. 7, 1949, that France sent train cars full of toys to each state in the U.S. The train cars were filled with dolls made in France for American children.
The gesture was a way for France to say, “thank you” for $40 million in food aid the US sent to France in the 1940s.
A few of the toys are now being kept in the State Museum in Trenton. As for the boxcar? New Jersey's was believed to have been lost in a fire.