Black Tom Explosion

Before the U.S. entered World War I, Black Tom Island on the shoreline was the country’s largest munitions depot, operated by the Lehigh Valley Railroad and supplying shipments to both Allied and German forces. On July 30, 1916, the depot erupted in flames and exploded, rocking New York Harbor and throwing residents from their beds, with the blast heard as far away as Maryland and Connecticut. On Ellis Island, frightened immigrants were evacuated by ferry to the Battery in Lower Manhattan. Shrapnel struck the Statue of Liberty and damaged the torch. Property damage was estimated at $20 million, and although the exact number of casualties is unknown, Jersey City Patrolman James Doherty and Lehigh Valley Railroad Police Chief Cornelius Leyden were among those killed. Investigators first ruled the disaster an accident, but after seventeen years of deliberation Germany was found responsible, and the sabotage was understood as retaliation for the British naval blockade of munitions to Germany.

Jersey City, New Jersey · United States