Civil Defense Sirens In NJ

The history of the Civil Defense sirens in New Jersey is a complicated one. New Jersey has various Urban centers such as Paterson, Newark, Trenton, Etc. In the 1950s 
the large amount of people in this area along with a threat of nuclear war caused these cities and many others to install what are known as Civil Defense sirens. This was a direct response to the threat of bombings from in the Cold War. These sirens were installed primarily throughout the 50s, 60s, and up to the late 70s. The sirens sounded with two signals: a steady tone for alert was a early warning, and a wavering tone calls attack meant that an attack was imminent. The sirens however in the late '80s and early 90s were mostly deactivated or removed. This was because the Civil Defense Initiative had mostly disbanded at this point and there was no renewed interest. Therefore most of them just sit there today rusting. Very few of the civil defense sirens are left active and if they are left active they are repurposed for other uses.