While immigration to Ellis Island decreased the population continued to grow , in part due to the Great Migration . Upon entry to World War I the US government took the Hamburg-American Line piers in Hoboken under eminent domain , and which became the major point of embarkation for more than three million soldiers , known as " doughboys " . Camp Merritt was established in Cresskill for troop staging . In 1916 , an act of sabotage literally and figuratively shook the region when German agents set off bombs at the munitions depot in New York Bay at Black Tom . Another act of sabotage known as the Kingsland Explosion occurred on January 11 , 1917 . The T. A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant explosion , though not considered sabotage , also caused tremendous damage
Black Tom
Black Tom explosion
Gateway Region