The Bowery Boys and the Black Tom Explosion
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
Pushkin Industries
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 5 August 2022
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Cautionary Tales returns next week, but in the meantime enjoy a story of disaster from The Bowery Boys Podcast.
It's July 30th 1916, just after 2am, and a massive explosion rips apart the munitions depot on Black Tom, an island off Jersey City. Tons of debris and jagged shrapnel pepper neighboring Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. Thousands of windows across New York are shattered, and millions of residents are awoken wondering what had just happened. Was it an accident or German sabotage?
The Bowery Boys is show about the people and events that have shaped the history of New York City, and really, shaped America.
Listen to more episodes of The Bowery Boys at https://www.boweryboyshistory.com/bowery-boys-first/bowery-boys-podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Pushkin |
| 0:09.5 | In 1916, New York was rocked by one of the largest explosions the world had ever experienced. |
| 0:18.0 | Windows were shattered across Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty was badly damaged, the sound of the explosion could be heard down in Philadelphia. |
| 0:28.0 | But how did this catastrophe occur? Was it a dreadful accident? Or was it, perhaps, sabotage by foreign agents? |
| 0:38.0 | I'll be hosting cautionary tales as usual next week, but this week I'm handing the detonator over to the Barry boys. |
| 0:46.0 | The tale they're about to tell you involves fireworks, spies, opera singers, suspected sex workers, German ability and cigar bombs. |
| 0:55.0 | It's quite the story. Barry boys is a fortnightly podcast all about the history of New York City. |
| 1:02.0 | It's full of fascinating curiosities and surprising stories. The hosts Greg Young and Tom Myers have been making the show since 2007. |
| 1:11.0 | So as you can imagine, they really know what they're talking about. |
| 1:15.0 | You can, of course, find the Barry boys podcast in all the usual places. |
| 1:20.0 | So now cautionary tales presents danger in the harbor from the Barry boys. |
| 1:27.0 | The Barry boys episode 197, danger in the harbor, the Black Tom explosion. |
| 1:34.0 | Hey, it's the Barry boys. |
| 1:36.0 | Hey. Hi there. Welcome to the Barry boys. This is Greg Young. |
| 1:53.0 | And this is Tom Myers. |
| 1:54.0 | There once was a very special place in one of America's most famous landmarks where visitors got to observe the New York harbor from a very unique perspective. |
| 2:06.0 | But for almost 100 years, that vantage spot, that place at this landmark has been permanently closed. |
| 2:14.0 | This is the story of how that came to be. |
| 2:18.0 | This is a story about millions of pounds of warm munitions and explosives that were detonated late one Saturday night in 1916. |
| 2:27.0 | It shook the entire region and it alarmed an entire nation, a nation that was trying to remain neutral as war spread throughout Europe. |
| 2:37.0 | Today we referred to this event as the Black Tom explosion, which is named for a very small island that was right up the coast of New Jersey in the New York harbor. |
| 2:47.0 | An island which is no longer there because of this event. |
... |
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