Nike Missile Site next to Governor Livingston High School
- Date Range
- 1958 – 1963
- Title
- Nike Missile Site next to Governor Livingston High School
- What occurred
- At the end of WWII, and the beginning of the Cold War with the USSR, Bell Labs was commissioned by the United States War Department to begin development on a line of anti-aircraft missiles, which was completed by 1953. The US army ordered 1,000 of the missiles, dubbed Nike Ajax, along with 60 missile launchers. In 1957, the army announced that a missile base would be built in the Watchung Reservation, which is a nature reserve located adjacent to Bell Labs. The construction was heavily protested, but completed in 1958. The base was known as NY-73, and had two parts; the base in the Watchung Reservation, and a radar tracking and control station located directly next to the local high school. The access road that connected the site to Glenside Ave, which runs adjacent to I-78, is now overrun by vegetation and is often used by joggers who live next to the high school. The site of the missile silo is now the location of Watchung Stable, with the stable building being in the exact location of the former underground missile silos. Nike missile silos have been known to contaminate their surrounding area with a chemical known as trichloroethylene, or TCE, which was used to clean the missiles. TCE has been determined to cause massive negative health effects, as per the Department of Health.
- Location
- 175 Watchung Blvd, Berkeley Heights, NJ 07922
- Image Citation
- https://www.alpsroads.net/roads/nj/nikesite/
- Student name(s)
- Josh Vaidman