black tom explosion never happened

They knew a fire had started the chain of events. 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. Firefighters battled the flames well into the next day after the massive explosion. Their destination: Jersey City's Black Tom Island, at the time the largest ammunition depot in America. 17 was packed with 50 tons of TNT, and 69 railroad freight cars were storing more than a thousand tons of ammunition, all awaiting shipment to Britain and France. Smaller explosions continued till dawn, but they caused little damage. Oriented with north toward the upper right. For reference, when the World Trade Centers North Tower collapsed in 2001, it registered a 2.3 on the Richter scale. The aftermath of the Black Tom explosion, an act of sabotage on American ammunition supplies by German agents that took place on July 30, 1916, in Jersey City . And they couldnt imagine that Germans would have done this. CLARK TO FIX BLAME FOR BIG EXPLOSION; Wilson Sends Commerce Commissioner Here to Continue Investigation. "When the explosion came, it seemed as if it was from abovezumpf!like a Zeppelin bomb," he said, according to Smithsonian Magazine. A game of tag; see British Bulldog (game) Black Tom. Von Rintelen and his ring of helpers was fairly successful in their efforts. It is the early morning hours of July 30, 1916, minutes before the Black Tom Island munitions dump explosion in Jersey City, N.J. will awaken half the east coast, changing history. The policy was clearly rooted in McCloys experience with German sabotage, views that were shared by President Roosevelt who had been the Assistant Secretary of the Navy during World War I, and who attempted to justify this indefensible action, by declaring We dont want another Black Tom.. [49] In an interview with Jules Witcover, McCloy noted that as assistant secretary of the navy under Wilson, Roosevelt "knew all about Black Tom." Even the heaviest plate-glass windows in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn shattered, and falling shards of glass preceded a mist of ash from the fire that followed the explosion. Fires burned on Black Tom Island into the morning after German saboteurs attacked the munitions depot. "And it wasn't really until it got into the late 1930s, and there was such animus again towards Germany because of Hitler, that all of the sudden the U.S. just became more interested in the case.". This explosion was so large, it was heard all the way in Philadelphia. Was it an accident or planned? They had been the victim of whats thought to be one of the first foreign terrorist attacks in the United States. Producer Credits The Little-Known Story Of The Black Tom Explosion That Rocked New York In 1916. They were right. In July that year, the Black Tom explosion an extraordinary but mostly forgotten disaster rocked the harbor when saboteurs destroyed a munitions plant across the water in Jersey City, New . On July 30, 1916, an explosion at Black Tom Island rocked New York Harbor. There were four confirmed fatalities in the explosion:[20][1] the barge captain,[21] Jersey City Police Department officer James F. Doherty,[22][21] Lehigh Valley Railroad chief of police Joseph Leyden,[23][24] and ten-week-old infant Arthur Tosson. Authorities assess the damage after the Black Tom explosion, which left the munitions depot in tatters. At eight minutes past two o'clock on the morning of Sunday, July 30, 1916, a thundering explosion at the Black Tom munitions depot sent sleeping residents of New York City and surrounding areas tumbling from their beds. There are a ton of people alive today who claim to remember visiting the statue of liberty and climbing the stairs all the way up to the torch, where they looked out over the New York Harbor. The Mixed Claims Commission declared in 1939 that Imperial Germany had been responsible and awarded $50 million (the largest claim) in damages, which Nazi Germany refused to pay. In addition to scholarly publications with top presses, she has written for Atlas Obscura and Ranker. The Black Tom Explosion: Proof of the Mandela Effect? A railway connected the landfill island to shore and it became a key munitions depot during World War I. Historical Marker", "1916 Black Tom Blast Anniversary Observed", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Black_Tom_explosion&oldid=1152246751, This page was last edited on 29 April 2023, at 02:07. Melted bottle from the Black Tom explosion, Black Tom pier shortly after the explosion, largest artificial non-nuclear explosions, List of German sponsored acts of terrorism during WWI, Largest artificial non-nuclear explosions, List of accidents and incidents involving transport or storage of ammunition, "Long: Terrorism's 100th anniversary | Commentary | roanoke.com", "The Kaiser Sows Destruction: Protecting the Homeland the First Time Around", "Providing Better Terminal Facilities for New York", "Where Street Refuse Goes; The Island of "Black Tom" in New-York Bay How the Offal of the City Adds to the Territory of New-Jersey", "A Terrible Explosion. The CIA wouldnt be established until after World War II. Black Tom explosion (30 July 1916), Jersey City, New Jersey; act of World War I sabotage on American ammunition supplies by German agents to prevent shipments to the Allies. As described by Witcover: The Black Tom promontory was a charred ruin; 13 huge warehouses were leveled and six piers destroyed, and fires continued to eat their way through the remains and consume hundreds of railroads cars and barges tied to the docks. 9." Watermark: Permalife, 25% cotton content. Black Tom was a major munitions depot for the northeastern United States. Photo: Wikipedia. All Rights Reserved. [43] The final payment was made in 1979. Black Tom Cassidy (created October 1976), a Marvel Comics supervillain, an enemy of the X-Men. Doctors and nurses arrived on the scene and tended to dozens of injured. Smoke billowing from the Black Tom explosion, a German sabotage . How Eyewitnesses Survived Explosion New York Times, July 31, 1916. The island received its name from a local legend of an African American resident named . In one terrifying, ear-splitting moment, the Great War then raging overseas had come to America. The Black Tom explosion wasnt the only provocation. The Black Tom Explosion was an act of sabotage made by agents of Imperial Germany. [13] A notable location for one of the first major explosions was around the Johnson Barge No. Today, the Black Tom site is part of New Jerseys Liberty State Park. Munition barges, freight cars, and warehouses were all damaged during the Black Tom explosion. (165-WW-280A-050) On a chilly November night in 1915, a dockhand crept silently through the darkness near the Newport News, Virginia, shipyard as he approached dockside corrals filled with horses destined to board British FATCO sells organic & responsibly-made tallow-based skincare products. After the explosion, Black Tom Island sank into New York Harbor. S. Liebmann's Sons Brewing Co.By the 1910s, Black Tom Island was a key shipping port. Genevieve Carlton earned a Ph.D in history from Northwestern University with a focus on early modern Europe and the history of science and medicine before becoming a history professor at the University of Louisville. So everyone just thought it was another accident like the one that had happened in 1875. One thing the authorities initially seemed to agree on was that the explosions werent the work of foreign saboteurs. This massive cache of unguarded weapons was an easy target for the Germans, who had already experimented with targeting American ships, factories, and piers. No guards stopped him, and no one noticed his pockets, which bulged with bombs shaped like cigars. Articles: First Explosion Terrific New York Times, July 31, 1916. It was the center of, and was destroyed by, the terrorist bombing of 1916. He was a German Naval Intelligence officer and a master spy. Just outside of Jersey City, the island was a manmade rectangle of land, mostly built up from refuse and rocks in the New York Harbor. The explosion damaged the torch of the Statue of Liberty, shown in the background. And explode is barely the word: The shock-waves from Black Tom . On the night of July 30th, 1916, Black Tom island disappeared. Required fields are marked *. The Black Tom explosion was an act of sabotage by agents of the German Empire, to destroy U.S.-made munitions that were to be supplied to the Allies in World War I.The explosions, which occurred on July 30, 1916, in New York Harbor, killed four people and destroyed some $20,000,000 ($500 million in 2023 dollars) worth of military goods. The Black Tom event was the largest and the deadliest.We know all of this now, but without any sort of unified investigative body in 1916, this info took years to uncover. [26] Suspicion at the time fell solely upon suspected German intelligence operatives Kurt Jahnke and Lothar Witzke, who are still judged as legally responsible. The Bureaus Role During Early World War I Years, FBI.gov is an official site of the U.S. Department of Justice. Review this podcast athttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-internet-says-it-s-true/id1530853589Bonus episodes and content available athttp://Patreon.com/MichaelKentFor special discounts, visithttp://theinternetsaysitstrue.com/deals, Your email address will not be published. German Master Spy Franz Von Rintelen and his "pencil bomb" were responsible for acts of sabotage in the United States during World War I. [48] The sabotage techniques used by Germany, and the United States' declaration of war on Germany, led to the creation of the Espionage Act, which passed by Congress in late 1917. The total damage came to an estimated $20 million a massive sum in 1916 equivalent to more than half a billion dollars today. The force of the explosion extended for miles from ground zero. Review this podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-internet-says-it-s-true/id1530853589Bonus episodes and content available athttp://Patreon.com/MichaelKentFor special discounts, visithttp://theinternetsaysitstrue.com/deals. To this day, access to that torch is banned. It took seventeen years for the MCC to find Germany responsible for the destruction of Black Tom Island, ordering the German government to pay the United States $50 million in damages. The United States remained officially neutral, but the U.S. also sold millions of dollars in weapons to Britain and France. Edgar Clark, a Commissioner with the Interstate Commerce Commission immediately began working on a report to President Woodrow Wilson, and found that there was no violation of federal laws governing the packing and transportation of explosives. Assuming office in 1913, ___ was only the second Democrat elected President since the Civil War. [25] Immigrants being processed at Ellis Island had to be evacuated to Lower Manhattan. Educated, industrious and neatly dressed, German-Americans perceived patriotism and commitment to life in America allowed them to integrate into society with less initial friction than other ethnic groups. At the time, it was both the largest explosion in modern history and the first foreign terrorist attack on U.S. soil. While the United States had not yet entered World War I and was officially neutral, American munitions dealers could legally sell to any of the warring nations. Property damage was estimated at $20 million. Police officers stood outside stores with broken windows following the explosion to prevent looting. Hurricane Sandy - October 29, 2012. They were right. Forgotten history, bizarre tales & facts that seem too strange to be true! On July 29, 1916, German agents set fire to a complex of warehouses and ships in the New York harbor that held munitions, fuel, and explosives bound to aid the Allies in their fight. Statue of Liberty Damaged by Giant Ammunition Explosions Washington Post, July 31, 1916. [38][39], The United States did not have an established national intelligence service, other than diplomats and few military and naval attaches, making the investigation difficult. The most successful and experienced anti-sabotage investigators turned out to be the detectives of the New York Police Departments Bomb Squad.