Tag Archive: local history

TODAY IN HISTORY: Graf Zeppelin completes first Transatlantic flight, lands in Lakehurst

October 15, 2012 1 Comment

Yep, the little town that could made history in more ways than you realize. On this day in 1928, the legendary Graf Zeppelin completed its first ever Transatlantic flight, flying from Friedrichshafen, Germany to Lakehurst, New Jersey in about 111 hours. Capt. Ernst Lehmann was in command of this historic flight. Eight years later he’d be on an even more famous flight: the crash of Hindenburg. Sadly, he would not live to tell his story; Lehmann was one of the causalities of the disaster. The famed Graf Zeppelin landed in Lakehurst at around 5:28 p.m., making Lakehurst the destination for the world’s first ever Transatlantic flight by a passenger airship. The Germans had some company on the fight. U.S. Navy LCDR Charles E. Rosendahl was…
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Random Musings, Uncategorized

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75 years ago today

May 6, 2012 5 Comments

The following is excerpted from my book Lakehurst: Barrens, Blimps and Barons. Seventy-five years ago today, fire rained down from the sky when the great airship Hindenburg exploded into a ball of flame over Lakehurst on May 6, 1937, in the process leaving an unforgettable mark on history. To this day, it remains the largest vessel ever to take to the skies. It was over 800 feet long; as long as two football fields and the majority of a third. Despite its stunning bulk, it routinely made the flight from Germany to Lakehurst, NJ in a mere two days while carrying scores of passengers. The Hindenburg was a Nazi vessel, constructed by the Germans in 1935 as the crowning jewel of its vast fleet of zeppelins. From the very start…
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Works by Eric, Writing

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Always thrilling when someone reads your work, but…

December 26, 2011 0 Comments

… nothing has been as personally gratifying as the response to my book on Lakehurst. I’ve written about legendary film directors, relationships, geek culture and more, but this is something special to me — and it’s made even more special by the fact that old friends, teachers, people I knew in my youth, their parents, and many others are getting it and are interested in it and are reading it. I’ve gotten random calls at home, emails from people I’ve never met, invitations to do presentations and interviews, requests to sign books for the holidays, and more. Considering I just sort of quietly slipped it out there at the last minute, no adverting or promotion outside this blog and Facebook, the positive response has been…
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Works by Eric, Writing

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The Ghosts of Hangar No. 1

December 10, 2011 0 Comments

Lakehurst: Barrens, Blimps and Barons

The following is a brief excerpt from Lakehurst: Barrens, Blimps & Barons, available now at Amazon and Lulu, as well as at the headquarters of the Lakehurst Historical Society. It recounts one of the many ghost stories that still haunt Navy Lakehurst’s famous Hangar No. 1. As Navy veteran Don Adams recalls, Hangar No. 1 briefly served as a morgue, the results of a disaster that still cannot be explained. Do the ghosts of Hangar No. 1 originate from the now unassuming rooms once used to house those who fell like angels in flame? Some believe they do. Maybe a clue lies with the ghosts. A long passage once spanned the length of the over eight hundred-foot-long hangar. To this day the doors of what’s…
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Works by Eric, Writing

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