Nike Missile Base to be Visible From Manor Park:
50 Years Ago
by Ned Benton (based on contemporaneous news accounts.)
A sailor's view of Hart Island.
(March 18, 2004) Imagine anyone trying to build anything on
an island a brief sail away from Larchmont Harbor just beyond
David's Island. Imagine the lengthy hearings, the likely opposition.
Now imagine a program to install Nike missiles on the island.
Unimaginable today, yet fifty years ago, with little fanfare
or protest, that's exactly what happened at Hart Island, less
than five miles from Manor Park.
The country was fighting the Cold War in 1954,
and the Long Island Sound was pressed into service
as the site of a Nike missile base aimed at protecting the
New York City metropolitan area from potential air attack.
To counter an enemy offensive, the base
would be set to launch fourteen 20-foot,
radar-controlled,
Nike
missiles, each of which could be equipped with powerful warheads.
To reassure the
public,
journalists were
allowed
to tour
the
island before the building began.
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Only a folding door, 52 feet by 9 feet, was to be visible
on the surface, the military informed the reporters.
Underground, there would be storage bins for the massive
Nike missiles, which would be armed and on full-time
alert in case of an incoming attack. Behind two reinforced
walls divided by three feet of dirt were the personnel
quarters. |
A hundred yards down a winding road from the launching
station, the military would maintain an assembly and fueling
stations with the four essential components: the
takeoff boost-equipment, explosive warhead, liquid fuel and
radar head.
Colonel Roland Carlson, Commandant of Fort
Slocum on Hart Island, explained that the site was one
of a ring of
long range anti-aircraft defenses for the metropolitan area.
There would be no test-firing of the missiles, he reassured
nearby residents.
The Army was taking elaborate
safety
precautions
to protect civilians
and the military personnel in the underground chambers. Furthermore,
he pointed out, the Nike warhead would only explode when
the missile was in flight.
Hosting buried missiles during the 50's was only part
of Hart Island's colorful history. It had served as a prisoner
of war camp
for
captured
Confederate
soldiers
during
the Civil
War. Then it became a pauper's cemetery, and later a minimum-security
prison work camp.
The missile base was operational for only six years, from
1955 through 1961. Today the island is maintained by the New
York City Department of Corrections, but the missiles are
long gone. The New
York Correction History Society maintains a website with
historical photos and documents about the island.
A photograph of the abandoned missile
silos by Michael
Lindenwald from a tour of Hart Island in June 2000. |
Larchmont
Year in Review: 1954
This article is part
of the Gazette's historical review that is focusing
all year on 1954.
The "Year in Review" project
interprets Larchmont history year by year. Larchmonters
speak for themselves through news reports, pictures,
and official documents.
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