Throughout the summer of 1885, about 20 workers at the Germania site of the United States Dynamite Co., just west of Toms River, were engaged in important but dangerous work. They were preparing thousands of pounds of explosives that would be shipped to New York City, where it was to be detonated in the largest blast North America had ever witnessed.

During that period, New Yorkers had been able to watch the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 1883, and were watching the Statue…