The Forgotten History of Black Tom: A Tale of Sabotage and Jersey City's Past
How one of the least remembered true stories of American vulnerability, gullibility and tenacity became a monumental piece of American history.
It was an otherwise average summer night on July 30, 1916 when a massive explosion rocked Jersey City's Black Tom Island. The force of the blast could be heard from as far north as Connecticut and as far south as Maryland, and it sent residents in Manhattan tumbling out of bed. Windows were shattered between Times Square and Lower Manhattan, the stained glass windows of St. Patrick's Cathedral were destroyed, and the Brooklyn Bridge was literally shaken. On Ellis Island, terrified immigrants were evacuated by ferry across the Hudson River. Shards of shrapnel pierced the Statue of Liberty leaving marks still visible today.
Black Tom Island, Jersey City, Explosion
Early on the night of July 30th, 1918, a Jersey City barge off of what is now Liberty State Park was housing 2,000,000 pounds of artillery ammunition and 100,000 pounds of TNT in preparation to be shipped as artillery in the battles of WWI when inexplicable small fires began popping up. Jersey City’s Black Tom Island held explosive powder and munitions manufactured in American factories that were brought to the Lehigh Valley Railroad terminal for shipment to British and French forces. While these seemingly random fires spooked a few guards on duty, their energy was spent extinguishing the fires rather than stopping to realize that they were under a German spy attack.
It was just after 2 am, that fires began raging out of control triggering the first and largest explosion of what was to be later called the disaster at Black Tom took place - a German attack upon the soil of a then neutral America to interfere their enemies from receiving much-needed war munitions.
The Affects of the Black Tom Explosion
The 24,000 feet per second detonation wave had residents in Philadelphia thinking they had just experienced a 5.0 magnitude Earthquake. destroyed more than one hundred railroad cars, damaged thirteen warehouses and created a 375-by-175 foot crater in its wake. Four people lost their lives: a Jersey City Policeman, a Lehigh Valley Railroad Chief of Police, the captain of the barge, and a ten-week-old baby that was thrown out of its crib. .
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.
The destruction of this act of terrorism resulted in damages of $20 Million worth of military goods and another 20 million in property damage. property damage estimated at another $20 million in 1916 dollars which in its 2019 equivalent amounts to more than $470 million. The Statue of Liberty damage alone was estimated at $100K or nearly $2.5 million in 2019. Although dangerously close to the Black Tom Depot, Lady Liberty was relatively unharmed; 100 rivets had popped, her body had been sprayed with shrapnel, and a one-ton door had been blown off. It is rumored that it was the explosion at Black Tom that led to visitors no longer being allowed to access the upper most viewing point of the statue.
The attack on Jersey City’s Black Tom Island was one of many mysterious fires that started popping up along the eastern seaboard including a shell-packing plant in Kingsland, NJ and the Hercules Powder Company in Eddystone, PA killing one hundred workers, mostly women and children. It is estimated that 43 American factories experienced mysterious explosions or fires between 1915 and 1917 in addition to the dozens of ships carrying supplies which were sabotaged and destroyed.
America Joins the Great War, WWI
Although neutral in the Great War, America had already become the arsenal of democracy - the chief armaments supplier for allied powers.
With the threat of war now approaching American soil, public opinion began to shift leading to the United States’ entry into World War I in April, 1917. Subsequent to the Black Tom Explosion, the U.S. Government establish intelligence agencies to alert officials of threats of future attack and sabotage. With public safety in question and the declaration of war, Congress passed the Espionage Act in 1917 and the subsequent Sabotage Act in 1918 with the interest of National Security in mind.
The original site of the Black Tom depot on the former Black Tom Island is now part of Liberty State Park.
