Steps: 3,354,066
Miles: 1402.16
Located on the northern edge of the New Jersey Pine Barrens is the town of Tom's River - and the Naval Air Station at Lakehurst.
Lakehurst became infamous on May 6, 1937 as the site of the Hindenburg dirigible disaster.
The construction contract for Hangar 1 was awarded to the Lord Construction Company on September 8, 1919 and the first of 10 trusses were erected by the Bethlehem Steel Company on May 8, 1920.
Construction was completed on Hangar 1 in 1921, at a cost of $4 million. It had exterior dimensions of 966' long, 350' wide, and 224' high, and had a total of 211,434 square feet of interior area.
At one time or another, Hangar 1 housed every active American rigid airship(Shenandoah, Los Angeles, Akron and Macon), the Graf Zeppelin & Hindenburg, several Army airships (including the semi-rigid airship, RS-1 in July 1927) and every type of non-rigid airship constructed for the Navy from 1922 to 1960.
The airship and hanger are mammoth! If you look closely you can see a truck parked near the hanger door on the right. The Hindenburg just fit within the hangar, with 18 inch clearance on the bow & stern.
In an unbelievable half minute, broadcaster Herb Morrison suddenly found himself reporting the biggest story of his life -- and it was almost too much for him. His smooth delivery became a jumble of impressions as the emotions of the unfolding disaster took hold.
“It’s burst into flames...get this, Charlie, get this, Charlie... Get out of the way, please, oh, my, this is terrible, oh, my, get out of the way, please! It is burning, burst into flames and is falling on the mooring mast and all the folks we...this is one of the worst catastrophes in the world!...Oh, it’s four or five hundred feet into the sky, it’s a terrific crash ladies and gentlemen...oh, the humanity and all the passengers!”Despite the violent fire, many of the crew and passengers survived. Of the 36 passengers and 61 crew, 13 passengers and 22 crew died. Also killed was one member of the ground crew. Most deaths were not caused directly by the fire but were from jumping from the burning airship.
Today there are still three hangers standing in Lakehurst.
Source of Pictures
3 comments:
Awesome pics, Iggy. I never paid much attention to the history behind that disaster, but it's something you hear about from time to time. I wouldn't mind seeing those hangars. And I saw the truck sitting outside. That hangar is huge!
ditto Alice
I've seen specials about the Hindenburg, what a tragedy. Until you see a picture of the airship in the hangar, it's hard to picture in your mind just how big they were. Thanks for sharing that, Iggy.
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