sabotage

Aftermath of the Black Tom munitions explosion of July 30, 1916. That's Ellis Island in the background: "Now a section of Liberty State Park (along Morris Pesin road including the park office and Flag Plaza), Black Tom was originally a small island in New York Harbor not far from Liberty Island. Between 1860 and 1880, Black Tom was connected to the mainland by a causeway and rail lines terminating at a freight facility with docks. The area between the island and the mainland was filled in sometime between 1905 and 1916 by the Lehigh Valley Railroad as part of its Jersey City facility. By the beginning of the twentieth century, Black Tom was serving as a major munitions depot. Before the United States entered the First World War, American businessmen would sell their supplies to any buyer. However, by 1915, the British Navy had established a blockade effectively keeping the Germans from being able to buy from the American merchants. The German government, on July 30, 1916, orchestrated the sabotage of freight cars at Black Tom, which were loaded with munitions for the Allies in Europe. The wreckage after the Black Tom Explosion. According to a recent study, the resulting explosion was the equivalent of an earthquake measuring between 5.0 and 5.5 on the Richter Scale. Windows within a 25-mile radius were broken, the outside wall of Jersey City’s City Hall was cracked and pieces of metal damaged the skirt of the Statue of Liberty (it is because of this explosion that the Lady's torch has been closed off to visitors). Most of the immigrants on Ellis Island were temporarily evacuated. Losses were estimate at $20 million and seven people were killed." www.state.nj.us/dep/parksandforests/parks/liberty_state_p...

To get an idea of the force of the explosion, that's the Ellis Island castle in the background. Since the powerhouse smokestack is to the right of the castle, and the east and west castle towers are nearly in line, that indicates that this picture is taken EAST of Ellis Island. Black Tom Island was a good mile the other side of Ellis Island Would you believe . . . Google Street view? goo.gl/maps/WZBT6

Amazing.. I suppose that means that shells and debris fell all over Ellis Island as well.

see also

This is apparently a view of some of the damage from the Black Tom munitions explosion of July 30, 1916, eventually held to be an act of German sabotage.
A very similar photo is used with the following caption in a blog entry on Black Tom:
"This view shows the wreckage of buildings on the pier at Black Tom Island, part of Jersey City, N.J., following the explosion of a munition plant set off by German saboteurs, July 1916. The pier is opposite the Statue of Liberty in the New York Harbor. (AP Photo)"
cryptome.org/eyeball/black-tom/black-eyeball.htm

See also

The Black Tom explosion on July 30, 1916, in Jersey City, New Jersey, was an act of sabotage by German agents to destroy American-made munitions that were to be supplied to the Allies in World War I. (Source: Wikipedia)

Thanks to both of you for this information. We'll make sure that some of it gets into each record the next time we update.

Seems those are Hudson River barges in the foreground. From some searching around, part of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehigh_Valley_Railroad . These folks www.waterfrontmuseum.org/home seem to have one as the home for their museum.