Everything about Black Tom Explosion totally explained
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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.
Black Tom Island prior to the blast
The term
Black Tom originally referred to an island in
New York Harbor next to
Liberty Island. The island received its name from a local legend of a "dark-skinned" resident named Tom. By 1880, a causeway and railway had been built connecting it to the mainland for use as a shipping depot. Sometime between 1905 and 1916, the
Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, which owned the island and causeway, expanded the island with landfill, resulting in the addition of the entire area to the limits of Jersey City. The area contained a mile-long pier that housed the depot as well as warehouses for the National Dock and Storage Company.
Black Tom was a major munitions depot for materials manufactured in the northeast. Prior to a 1915
blockade of the
Central Powers by the British
Royal Navy, American industries were free to sell their materials to any buyer, but by this time the Allies were the only possible customers. It was reported that on the night of the attack, two million pounds of ammunition were being stored at the depot in freight cars, including one-hundred thousand pounds of TNT on the
Johnson Barge No.17, all awaiting eventual shipment to Britain and France. It was obviously a tempting target. Future mayor
Frank Hague, then commissioner of public safety, reported that he'd been told that the barge had been "tied up at Black Tom to avoid a twenty-five dollar towing charge."
*
, which would have been around $470 today.
Explosion
After midnight, a series of small fires were found on the pier. Some guards fled, fearing an explosion; others attempted to fight the fires. Eventually they called the Jersey City Fire Department.
At 2:08 a.m., the first and biggest of the explosions took place. Shrapnel from the explosion travelled long distances, some lodging in the
Statue of Liberty and some in the clocktower of the
Jersey Journal building in
Journal Square, over a mile away, stopping the clock at 2:12 a.m. The explosion 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. Windows broke as far as 25 miles (40 km) away, including thousands in lower
Manhattan. Some window panes in
Times Square were completely shattered. The outer wall of Jersey City's City Hall was cracked and the Brooklyn Bridge was shaken.
Property damage from the attack was estimated at $20 million ($377 million today). The damage to the Statue of Liberty was valued at $100,000 ($1.9 million today) and included the skirt and the torch. The arm has been closed to visitors ever since.
(External Link)
Immigrants being processed at
Ellis Island also had to be evacuated to lower Manhattan. Reports vary, but as many as seven people may have been killed, including:
Aftermath
Two of the guards who had lit the smudge pots were immediately arrested. However, it soon became clear that the blast hadn't been an accident. It was traced to a Slovak immigrant named Michael Kristoff (probably a stolen identity), who had served in the U.S. Army, but admitted to carrying suitcases for the Germans before America entered
World War I. According to him, two of the guards were German agents. It is likely that the bombing involved some of the ingenious techniques developed by a group of German agents surrounding German ambassador Count
Johann Heinrich von Bernstorff, probably using the
pencil bombs developed by Captain
Franz von Rintelen.
Although blamed at the time solely on German agents, later investigations in the aftermath of the
Annie Larsen incidence unearthed links between the
Ghadar conspiracy and the Black Tom explosion.
Franz von Papen is known to have also been involved in both. Later investigations by the Directorate of Naval Intelligence is known to have found extensive links to the Irish movement, the Indian Movement, as well as the Communist elements.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad Company sought damages against Germany under the
Treaty of Berlin with the German-American Mixed Claims Commission. The commission in 1939 declared that Imperial Germany had been responsible and ordered damages. The two sides finally settled on $50 million in 1953. The final payment was made in 1979.
Black Tom today
The location of Black Tom Island can be visited today as part of
Liberty State Park. The park consists of former industrial and railroad lands created by filling in the waters adjoining Black Tom to the north, making it now part of the mainland. The former Black Tom Island is the area at the end of Morris Pesin Drive in the southeastern corner of the park. A plaque marks the spot of the explosion.
The plaque reads
Explosion at Liberty!
On July 30, 1916 the Black Tom munitions depot exploded rocking New York Harbor and sending residents tumbling from their beds.
The noise of the explosion was heard as far away as Maryland and Connecticut. On Ellis Island, terrified immigrants were evacuated by ferry to the Battery. Shrapnel pierced the Statue of Liberty (the arm of the Statue was closed to visitors after this). Property damage was estimated at $20 million. It isn't known how many died.
Why the explosion? Was it an accident or planned? According to historians, the Germans sabotaged the Lehigh Valley munitions depot in order to stop deliveries being made to the British who had blockaded the Germans in Europe.
You are walking on a site which saw one of the worst acts of terrorism in American history.
A stained glass window at
Our Lady of Czestochowa Catholic church memorialized the victims of the attack.
Further Information
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