Battery Weed

Coordinates: 40°36′19″N 74°3′17″W / 40.60528°N 74.05472°W / 40.60528; -74.05472
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Battery Weed
Joseph G. Totten
Architectural styleThird System of US fortifications
NRHP reference No.72000908[1]
NYCL No.0379
Significant dates
Added to NRHPJanuary 20, 1972
Designated NYCLOctober 12, 1967

Battery Weed is a four-tiered 19th century fortification guarding the Narrows, the main approach from the Atlantic Ocean to New York City. Located on the Staten Island waterfront on the west shore of the Narrows, directly across from Fort Hamilton and the now-destroyed Fort Lafayette in Brooklyn, the fort was intended to protect New York from attack by sea. When built, it was named Fort Richmond, as was a previous fort on the site.[2]

History

Early 19th century

The first fort on the site was built by the

State of New York beginning in 1806, which was ready for service in 1808 though incomplete. This fort was built of red sandstone and named Fort Richmond, after the county in which Staten Island is located, which was named for Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of Richmond.[2][3] It was protected on the landward side by the first Fort Tompkins, also built of red sandstone by the state. Fort Richmond was initially semicircular while Fort Tompkins was a regular pentagon with circular bastions, both very different from their Third System replacements.[4] Although these forts were contemporary with the federal government's second system of seacoast fortifications, they were not part of the federal program. Federal rebuilding of Forts Richmond and Tompkins did not begin until 1847. This fort and others nearby were expanded and completed during the War of 1812.[2]

Third system fort

By 1835 Forts Richmond and Tompkins had deteriorated to the point that they were declared unfit for use, and the next year the federal government began a decade-long process of purchasing them.

Brigadier General James Wadsworth, killed in the 1864 Battle of the Wilderness during the Civil War.[3]

Late 19th through early 20th century

A mine casemate for controlling an underwater minefield was built in the fort in 1875 and was later re-used when mines became a standard part of the harbor defenses in the 1890s.[7] At that time numerous new gun batteries were built near the fort under the Endicott Program for the Harbor Defenses of New York. Part of that program was a renaming of the entire fortified area at the Narrows on Staten Island as Fort Wadsworth, with the former Fort Richmond becoming Battery Weed, in General Order No. 16 of 4 February 1902. Battery Weed was named for Brigadier General Stephen H. Weed, killed at Gettysburg in 1863.[2]

In 1903, a

Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened in 1965 the lighthouse became obsolete. Dark for many years, it was restored and converted to solar power by volunteers in 2005.[8]

Present

Fort Wadsworth was an active military base until 1994, operated by the U.S. Navy for its final few years. In 1995, Battery Weed, along with the rest of Fort Wadsworth, was transferred to the care of the National Park Service as part of the Gateway National Recreation Area. Battery Weed's interior is open to the public on park ranger escorted tours only, although its exterior can be viewed at all times. A 10-inch smoothbore Rodman gun is preserved in the fort.

360 degree panoramic view of the interior of Battery Weed in 2016

See also

References

  1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-02-926880-X
    .
  3. ^ a b c Fort Wadsworth at FortWiki.com
  4. ISBN 978-0-929521-11-4
    .
  5. ^ Fort Richmond at New York State Military Museum
  6. ISBN 978-1-7323916-1-1
    .
  7. ^ Fort Wadsworth at American Forts Network
  8. ^ Lighthousefriends.com

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Battery Weed.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battery_Weed&oldid=1149990488"