Recently, as I was writing about floating nuclear power plants off Long Beach Island, I was asked why this weekly column is called 200 Plus. This week would be a good time to answer the question – but as with most things, we must start at the beginning.

It was the summer of 1974; the nation was being torn apart as the Vietnam War was coming to an end and the word Watergate was on everyone’s lips. There did appear to be one bright spot: the Bicentennial of the American Revolution.

One hundred years before, the Centennial had been used to help bind the wounds of the Civil War, and maybe it could…