1916 Black Tom Blast Anniversary Observed

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

An AP story in the Pittsburgh TR:

"NEW YORK (AP) – The sound of the blast was unearthly, and the tremor was felt 100 miles away in Philadelphia. The night sky over New York Harbor turned orange. People were jolted from bed and windows shattered within 25 miles.

"The Statue of Liberty, less than a mile away, was damaged by a rain of red-hot shards of steel. Frightened immigrants on Ellis Island were hastily evacuated to Manhattan.

“The epicenter of the blast - a small island called Black Tom - all but disappeared in what was then the largest explosion ever in the U.S., on Sunday, July 30, 1916 at 2:08 a.m.”

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BLACK_TOM_EXPLOSION?SITE=PAGRE&SECTION=NATIONAL&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Dave

2

I read an interesting book about this. It was believed to be sabotage by German spies.

3

Pretty amazing stuff. Thanks for the link.

4

I believe this blast caused the military to stop storeing munitions in high population areas. This is the reason the HUGE munitions depot was built around Hawthorne,Nv. This saved the historic Mina branch from being scrapped.