4. The Torch Has Been Closed to the Public Since 1916

Aftermath of Black Tom Explosion on a Jersey City Pier. Photo via Library of Congress.

During World War I, German spies launched an attack on a munitions facility on Black Tom Island, a mile-long pier on landfill off the New Jersey shore across from the Statue of Liberty. Black Tom “Island” was owned by the Lehigh Valley Railroad and served as a transport site for war supplies going to the Allied forces in Europe. On July 30, 1916, fire was set to the cargo, which reportedly contained 2 million pounds of ammunition, including shrapnel, TNT and dynamite. $100,000 worth of damage was done to the Statue of Liberty and the torch has been closed since.

It took 17 years to settle the claims against Germany, ordered to pay $50 million in reparations in 1939, but the payment was not made until 1979. The National Parks Service contends that the Black Tom explosion “was one of the largest acts of sabotage to our nation prior to the event of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.” Today, a monument on Liberty Island marks the location of the attack.