On This Day: Saboteurs destroy $540M (2023 $) of munitions in massive explosion - July 30, 1916
(edited from Wikipedia)
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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 at least four people and destroyed some $20,000,000 ($540 million in 2023 dollars) worth of military goods. This incident, which happened prior to U.S. entry into World War I, also damaged the Statue of Liberty. It was one of the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions in history.
Black Tom was a major munitions depot for the northeastern United States. 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. Due to the blockade of Germany by the Royal Navy, however, only the Allied Governments were able to purchase American munitions. As a result, Imperial Germany sent spies to the United States to disrupt by any means necessary the production and delivery of war munitions that were intended to kill German soldiers on the battlefields of the Great War.
On the night of the Black Tom explosion, July 30, 1916, about 2,000,000 pounds (910,000 kg) of small arms and artillery ammunition were stored at the depot in freight cars and on barges, including 100,000 pounds (45,000 kg) of TNT on Johnson Barge No. 17. All were waiting to be shipped to Russia.
At 2:08 am, the first and largest of the explosions took place,.
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 were broken as far as 25 miles (40 km) away, including thousands in Lower Manhattan. People as far away as Maryland were awakened by what they thought was an earthquake.
Property damage from the attack was estimated at $20,000,000 (equivalent to about $538,000,000 in 2022). On the island, the explosion destroyed more than one hundred railroad cars, thirteen warehouses, and left a 375-by-175-foot (110 by 50 m) crater at the source of the explosion. The damage to the Statue of Liberty was estimated to be $100,000 (equivalent to about $2,690,000 in 2022), and included damage to the skirt and torch.
The United States did not have an established national intelligence service, other than diplomats and few military and naval attaches, making the investigation difficult. Without a formal intelligence service, the United States only had rudimentary communications security and no federal laws forbidding espionage or sabotage except during wartime, making the associations with the saboteurs and accomplices almost impossible to track.
This attack was one of many during the German sabotage campaign against the neutral United States, and it is notable for its contribution to the shift of public opinion against Germany, which eventually resulted in American approval for participating with World War I.
The Black Tom explosion resulted in the establishment of domestic intelligence agencies for the United States.
The sabotage techniques used by Germany, and the United States' declaration of war on Germany, resulted in the creation of the Espionage Act, which passed by Congress in late 1917. Landfill projects later made Black Tom Island part of the mainland, and it was incorporated into Liberty State Park. The former Black Tom Island is at the end of Morris Pesin Drive in the southeastern corner of the park, where a plaque marks the spot of the explosion. A circle of U.S. flags complements the plaque, which stands east of the visitors' facility.
The inscription on the plaque reads:
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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 is not 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 worse [sic] acts of terrorism in American history.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Tom_explosion
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= new reply since forum marked as read
I don't remember ever learning about it in history classes in school
I don't remember ever seeing a documentary about it
I've been to the Statue of Liberty a number of times and I don't recall any mention of it
As a kid I remember being fascinated with the statue and knew that people used to be able to go up into the torch. I had a book with old-timey pictures of people on the torch dressed in turn of the century garb. As a kid we went to the statue and climbed up into the crown, but not the torch. I was told the torch wasn't safe, was too hard to climb up a narrow ladder to, but not because the arm holding it was damaged in a terrorist attack.
