Search the site...

STREET TO THE LEFT
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • New Jersey
    • Radium Park
    • Meadowlands Cedar Forest
    • Hackensacks Main Street
    • Passaic >
      • Passaic's East Side Lower Dundee
      • Botany Worsted Mill
    • NEWARK >
      • Murphy Varnish
      • The Newark Castle
      • Morris Canal Route of Newark
      • Mount Pleasant Cemetery
      • Weequahic
    • JERSEY CITY >
      • FICKENS WAREHOUSE
      • MERCER STREET VIADUCT
      • The Island
      • Green Stamps, Jersey City
      • Durham-Duplex
      • COLES STREET BATHHOUSE
      • Parodi Cigars
      • St. Peters
  • PENNSYLVANIA
  • New York
    • Sloatsburg
  • Parks, Green Spaces , Water
  • Other Great Sites
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • New Jersey
    • Radium Park
    • Meadowlands Cedar Forest
    • Hackensacks Main Street
    • Passaic >
      • Passaic's East Side Lower Dundee
      • Botany Worsted Mill
    • NEWARK >
      • Murphy Varnish
      • The Newark Castle
      • Morris Canal Route of Newark
      • Mount Pleasant Cemetery
      • Weequahic
    • JERSEY CITY >
      • FICKENS WAREHOUSE
      • MERCER STREET VIADUCT
      • The Island
      • Green Stamps, Jersey City
      • Durham-Duplex
      • COLES STREET BATHHOUSE
      • Parodi Cigars
      • St. Peters
  • PENNSYLVANIA
  • New York
    • Sloatsburg
  • Parks, Green Spaces , Water
  • Other Great Sites
  • Contact

Kingsland Explosion

5/11/2016

0 Comments

 
​On the side of the road in the industrial part of the meadowlands lies a single smokestack. Most drive by, many don't notice it, nor do they notice the memorial on the side of the road for it. But it's at this site where a major fire took place a century ago.
Picture
​It was January 11, 1917, when a fire started in Building 30 of the Canadian Car and Foundry Company in Kingsland , which has now been renamed Lyndhurst. All it took was 4 hours to erase the massive plant off the map. The residents of New York City watched across the harbor in horror as 500 000 pieces of explosive shells were set off .
Picture
Source:Great Northern Railway Page
Picture
Source:Glabarre.com
Picture
​Canadian car and foundry was a company based in Montreal and although America was not yet involved in the war, it set up a plant in New Jersey for the production of war ammunition.
Picture
​There was major speculation as to the source of the fire even going as far as to say it was sabotage from the German government. The plant had been set up to assemble weapons for shipment to Russia. It was later discovered that the fire started at the bench of one of the workers, Fiodoe Wozniak who was said to be surrounded by rags. On the bench in front of each employee was a pan of gasoline and a small rotating machine operated by a belt. It is said when the fire started he tossed  what looked like water on top of the flames although no one knows where the water came from.
Picture
​Germany never admitted guilt but paid America reparations.
Picture
​As per lyndhurst historical society:

A heroine emerged the day of the fire. Kingsland resident Tessie McNamara, who operated the company switchboard, was credited with saving many lives. As the fire raged on, Tessie stayed at the switchboard that Thursday afternoon. She plugged in each of the buildings and shouted the warning, “Get out or go up!”

Thanks to her dedication, no one was killed in the fire. 
Escaping workers were able to cross the frozen Hackensack River or run up Valley Brook Avenue to safety. The National Special Aid Society later presented Miss McNamara with a check to honor her for her bravery.
Picture
​The Lyndhurst Historical Society has created a vest pocket park dedicated to her memory. The park is located on Clay Avenue, between Valley Brook Avenue and Wall Street West.
Picture
Picture
Source: Lyndhurst Historical Society
Picture
​As I step up on the viewing platform and look out into the marsh I notice something jutting out from the water. It is a single smoke stack, the final reminder of the factory and the events which took place.
Picture
​The destruction at the Kingsland Explosion, found on Youtube, uploaded by Critical Past
Laura Gonzalez
July 20 2015
0 Comments

MEADOWLANDS

2/3/2016

0 Comments

 
​The Meadowlands is a large ecosystem of wetlands in northeastern New Jersey. The 20,000 acres of wetlands was once home to hundreds of species of plants and animals.  The region was formed by the Wisconsin Glacier which was the most recent major advance of the North American ice sheet complex happened about 20 thousand years ago.  The glacier stretched all the way to Perth Amboy.  When the ice sheet began to melt and retreat, it gouged out the area between what is now the Palisades and the ridge along Schuyler Avenue.  It also formed a deep freshwater lake now known as Glacial Lake Hackensack. This, in turn, formed a large swamp.
Picture
​The area of the Meadowlands includes portions of Kearny, Jersey City, North Arlington, Secaucus, Lyndhurst, Rutherford, East Rutherford, Carlstadt, North Bergen, Moonachie, Ridgefield, Ridgefield Park, and Little Ferry. The history of the Meadowlands is filled with Landfills, (no pun intended), pig farms, abandoned rails, and marshy polluted swampland.
meadowlands history passaic river
Source: http://www.nj.gov/state/archives/images
You can read the rest of the story here. 
0 Comments

    ABOUT THE AUTHOR

    Laura Gonzalez is a photographer, blogger and historian currently residing in Newark, New Jersey. 

    Archives

    April 2021
    April 2020
    March 2018
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016

    Categories

    All
    Abandoned
    Amusement Park
    Annadale
    Barrytown
    Bayonne
    Bay Street
    Bergen County
    Bloomfield
    Brewery
    Brickyards
    Bridge
    "Burlington County"
    Burlington County
    Canal
    Carlstadt
    Cement
    Cemetery
    Conrail
    Delaware River
    Delaware Water Gap
    Drawbridge
    Dundee Canal
    Dunellen
    Erie Railroad
    Essex County
    Estates
    Factory
    Gilded
    "gold Coast"
    Hackensack
    Hackettstown
    Historic Houses
    Hospital
    Hudson County
    Hunterdon County
    Industrial
    Inventions
    Iron Works
    Italianate
    Johnsonburg
    Kingsland
    Landfills
    "long Island"
    Lyndhurst
    Meadowlands
    Menlo Park
    Middlesex County
    Mill
    Milltown
    "Mount Holly"
    Mount Holly
    "nature Preserve"
    Newark
    Newburgh
    New Jersey
    New York
    Nutley
    Ohio
    Orange
    Orange-county-new-york
    Orange-county-new-york
    Palisades
    Passaic
    Passaic-county
    Paterson
    Pennsylvania
    Perth-amboy
    Philadelphia
    Plainfield
    Plank-road
    Quaker
    Rails
    Ramapo
    Rockland County
    Seaman's Retreat
    Secaucus
    Silk Mills
    Small Town
    Somerset County
    South Jersey
    SS Oregon
    Staten Island
    Strange
    Sussex County
    Swampland
    Thomas Edison
    Union City
    Union County
    Victorian Houses
    Walks
    Warren County
    Waterfront
    Weehawken
    Wheelwright
    Woolen Mill
    Zabriskie
    Zanesville

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.