At 2:08 a.m., an explosion ripped through the night. Aftermath of German bombing and sabotage of Black Tom Railroad train cars in New Jersey on July 30, 1916. Authorities recovered munitions from the blast site without knowing whether they were live. On July 30, 1916, an explosion at Black Tom Island rocked New York Harbor. For reference, when the World Trade Centers North Tower collapsed in 2001, it registered a 2.3 on the Richter scale. [11] Jersey City's Commissioner of Public Safety, Frank Hague, later said he had been told the barge was "tied up at Black Tom to avoid a twenty-five dollar charge". Chad: So when the guard saw him he didn't think twice about this guy being in the area . [6] By 1880, the island was transformed into a 25-acre (10ha) promontory,[7] and a causeway and railroad had been built to connect it with the mainland to use as a shipping depot. The explosions, which occurred on July 30, 1916, in New York Harbor, "killed four people and destroyed some $20,000,000 ($500 million in 2022 dollars) worth of military goods." Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. And what of the Black Tom saboteurs? The Statue of Liberty was permanently damaged -- afterward, visitors were forbidden from climbing into the Torch. The Forgotten Attack On NYC - Gotham Gazette On the 30th July 1916, an explosion took place in New York that was the equivalent of an earthquake measuring between 5.0 and 5.5 on the Richter scale and was felt as far away as Philadelphia. In the darkened . Black Tom was a distribution point for thousands of tons of munitions, explosives, and black powder shipped across the Atlantic to Allied forces fighting in Europe. Warehouses collapsed onto freight cars filled with TNT. "Note: This territory also covered by sheets 84, 85, 86 & 89 of Hudson County, vol. Until April 6, 1917, the United States was neutral in respect to World War I and its munitions companies earlier in the war could sell to any buyer. Watchmen in the Woolworth building in Lower Manhattan saw the blast, and thinking their time had come, got down on their knees and prayed, one newspaper reported. 26 - Apr. The term "Black Tom" originally referred to an island in New York Harbor next to Liberty Island. Martin Casella: The title Black Tom Island comes from the name of a small island that used to be off the coast of New Jersey, about a half-mile from the Statue of Liberty. The Mare Island Explosion: A Defining Moment In Bay Area History English: The Black Tom explosion of July 30, 1916 in Jersey City, New Jersey was an act of sabotage on American ammunition supplies by German agents to prevent the materials from being used by the Allies in World War I. Damaged canal boats in the wreckage after the explosion. With generous cash bribes, Von Rintelen had little problem gaining access to pierswhich is how Michael Kristoff, a Slovak immigrant living in Bayonne, New Jersey, is believed to have gotten to the Black Tom munitions depot in July of 1916. | READ MORE. So was Cornelius Leyden, the Lehigh Valley Railroad Chief of Police. The Black Tom explosion was the peak act of German sabotage on American soil during the First World War.
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