Gothamist: Today In History: The Black Tom Explosion Rocked NY Harbor

john h. west

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 15:21:28 -0500

Who owned the mill and what were their names?

john h. west

Mon, 20 Nov 2006 15:18:46 -0500

who owned the mill and what were their names?

Peter

Fri, 27 Oct 2006 15:25:53 -0500

Great. Thanks! nokia6630

kudos

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 10:10:29 -0500

excellent post to gothamist -- keep it up, this was fascinating and informative.

Mt

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 09:54:12 -0500

I had heard a story (completely unsubstantiated mind you) that the FBI kept a large store of munitions in the old 7WTC because it was their headquarters or something in the city. Has anyone else ever heard anything along those lines?

Isaiah

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 05:10:35 -0500

Munitions would be strategic targets, so I don't think sabotaging them counts as a "terrorist attack," even if the sabotage is in such a violent, shocking manner. Terrorist acts are violence done against targets of a primarily non-strategic nature, and are designed to weaken an opponent's political or moral will to fight, rather than his material ability to do so. But a neat bit of history, nonetheless!

plemeljr

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 23:40:34 -0500

Here's more information on Naval Weapons Station Earle, if you wanted to know.

Dylan

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 22:57:17 -0500

Good post!!

BDT

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 18:22:01 -0500

Observer, looks correct from a bit of Googling. The explosion cause $100,000 of structural damaged to the statue and the torch has been officially closed since.

Mercilessly Pragmatic

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 18:05:21 -0500

It's really amazing that some of the most incredible disasters (Hurricanes, explosions, shipwrecks, fires) in the US and Canada are now almost totally forgotten. If they are not followed by a war (The Alamo, The Maine, The Lusitania, Pearl Harbor) they might as well not have existed.

Observer

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 17:57:05 -0500

Did the Statue of Liberty torch really get closed permanently because of this? I think some fact-checking is needed...

doggieballs

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 16:01:15 -0500

heavy weapons are unloaded (going in the NY port) and loaded (leaving the NY port) at Earl Weapons Base long peir in Bedford, NJ. There stored in buried tunnels about ten or so miles inland and moved via a rail. Its all pretty ease to see and follow from the sandy hook bay on Google Earth.

Rufus

Sun, 30 Jul 2006 15:36:44 -0500

My grandfather was 7 at the time of the Black Tom explosion and living in Hoboken. He always claimed that it knocked him out of bed.