Port Johnston Coal Docks

At the time of its completion in 1866, it was the largest coal dock in the world and employed 200 men, mostly Irish immigrants.

On July 26, 1877, the first full-scale strike occurred in Bayonne at the Port Johnston Coal Docks when workers walked off the job.

The Lehigh and Wilkesbarre Coal Company promptly fired all of the workers and brought in German immigrants from New York City to work.

A threat of a riot was averted with the intervention of Bayonne Mayor Henry Meigs, Jr. and Father Thomas Killeen of St. Mary's Church.

By early August, Meigs had worked out a solution with the company that ended the strike peacefully.