Fort Totten (Queens)
Fort Totten | |
---|---|
Part of | |
Coordinates | 40°47′31.3″N 73°46′33.9″W / 40.792028°N 73.776083°W |
Site information | |
Owner | New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (primarily) |
Open to the public | Civil War fort, some other activities |
Site history | |
Built | 1862 |
Built by | United States Army Corps of Engineers |
In use |
|
Materials | FDNY . |
Fort Totten is a former active
The neighborhood has buses and served by MTA Regional Bus Operations Q13 and Q16 Buses.History
Civil War era
Construction began on the Fort at Willets Point in 1862 (named Fort Totten in 1898), after the land was purchased by the U.S. Government in 1857 from the Willets family. The fort is close to the Queens neighborhoods of
1869-1890
In 1869 the
Endicott era (1890-1916)
In 1885 the
Name | No. of guns | Gun type | Carriage type | Years active |
---|---|---|---|---|
King | 8 | 12" mortar M1890 | barbette M1896 | 1900-1935 |
Mahan | 2 | 12-inch gun M1895 | disappearing M1897 | 1900-1918 |
Graham | 2 | 10-inch gun M1888 |
disappearing M1894 | 1897-1918 |
Sumner | 2 | 8-inch gun M1888 | 1 disappearing M1894, 1 disappearing M1896 | 1899-1917 |
Stuart | 2 | 5-inch gun M1897 | balanced pillar M1896 |
1900-1917 |
Baker | 4 | 2 3-inch gun M1902 |
2 masking parapet M1898, 2 pedestal M1902 |
1900-1920 (M1898), 1904-1945 (M1902) |
Burnes | 2 | 3-inch gun M1902 | pedestal M1902 | 1904-1945 |
Battery King was built by converting two of the four pits of the earlier mortar battery to concrete, with four mortars in each pit.
World War I
After the
Between the wars
In 1920 Battery Baker's pair of 3-inch M1898 guns was removed, part of a general removal from service of this type of weapon. Around this time a 3-gun
World War II
In December 1941 Fort Totten became the headquarters for the
Cold War
In 1954, the fort became a
1970s
According to rumor, Fort Totten was the location of the safe house where
Current status
The current military presence at Fort Totten is centered on the 77th Sustainment Brigade, its subordinate units, and the 533rd Brigade Support Battalion of the
Much of the fort has become a public park and is open for tours by the
During the winter months, a large variety of migratory waterfowl can be observed in the surrounding waters: Little Bay to the west, Long Island Sound to the north, and Little Neck Bay to the east. Most buildings are dilapidated and unused. Fort Totten is also a sports complex, with an outdoor pool, baseball fields and three soccer fields used for youth soccer.
Fort Totten is designated as a New York City Historic District.
Fort Totten Officers' Club
The
The club building was designed by Robert E. Lee in his pre-Civil War capacity as a military engineer but not built until the 1870s, although some historians[who?] believe that the actual design was done by a subordinate and merely approved by Lee. The building was designed in the neo-Gothic style popular at the time and was not created specifically for Fort Totten but rather was a generic design approved by the Army for use at military installations. Identical structures were built at other Army forts and the Castle design was adopted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as their insignia, although the reason for this action is murky. A local tradition is that the Corps of Engineers symbol derived from the Fort Totten building, but the reverse is more likely: the building design was based on a castle in part because this symbol had long been identified with Army engineers. The club was built in the 1870s and the engineer castle symbol dates from circa 1840.[24][25] When Fort Totten's Castle was restored in the 1990s, the Corps of Engineers was contacted in the hope that they would participate, particularly since the Fort Totten Castle was occupied at one time by the Corps of Engineers, but the military failed to show any interest.[citation needed]
In popular culture
- In the TV series The Endgame, Fort Totten is used as a government black site, and is where criminal mastermind Elena Federova is detained upon her capture.
- The music video for Jay-Z's collaboration with Kanye West and Rihanna, "Run This Town", was filmed on August 6, 2009 at Fort Totten.
- Fort Totten appeared in the TV series White Collar, episode 13 season 5, "Diamond Exchange".
- Fort Totten appears in season 4 episode 13 of Blue Bloods (TV Series), "Unfinished Business".
- Fort Totten appears in season 5 episode 17 of Third Watch (TV Series), "Family Ties: Part II".
See also
- Fort Totten (disambiguation)
- Seacoast defense in the United States
- Totten (disambiguation)
- United States Army Coast Artillery Corps
References
- ^ AbandonedNYC Print Shop Photo Keywords fort totten, Fort Totten Endicott Battery
- ^ Fort Totten Tour, Historic New York: The Fort Totten Tunnel Tour
- ^ Bayside Historical Society, Brief History of Fort Totten, 2006
- ^ United States War Department, Annual reports, Volume 2, Part 1, 1902, page 817
- ^ Federal Writers' Project, New York City Guide, Volume 1, 1939, page 572
- ^ Peter Jun, U.S. Army Public Affairs, "Unique Army Reserve Unit Activates With State-of-the-Art Mission", October 15, 2009
- ^ New York City Parks Department, "Fort Totten Park", accessed April 28, 2013
- ^ National Park Service, "Fort Totten Park", accessed April 28, 2013
- ^ a b Roberts, p. 586
- ^ a b Weaver, pp. 143-148
- ^ a b c Fort Totten at FortWiki.com
- ^ a b c d e "History of Fort Totten at Hoflink.com". Archived from the original on 2016-09-06. Retrieved 2016-11-02.
- ^ Berhow, pp. 333-334
- ^ a b Battery King at FortWiki.com
- ^ a b c Fort Totten at American Forts Network
- ^ Berhow, p. 209
- ^ History of the 69th Artillery, CAC in WWI
- ^ US Army railway artillery in WWI
- ^ Clay, Steven E. (2010). US Army Order of Battle 1919–1941, vol. 2 (PDF). Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Combat Studies Institute Press. pp. 1024–1025.
- ^ "Request Information".
- ^ "377th TSC".
- ^ History Comes Alive At Fort Totten Park
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ Corps Castle at USACE official website
- ^ Corps Castle at USACE Nashville District official website
- Berhow, Mark A., ed. (2015). American Seacoast Defenses, A Reference Guide (Third ed.). McLean, Virginia: CDSG Press. ISBN 978-0-9748167-3-9.
- Lewis, Emanuel Raymond (1979). Seacoast Fortifications of the United States. Annapolis: Leeward Publications. ISBN 978-0-929521-11-4.
- Rinaldi, Richard A. (2004). The U. S. Army in World War I: Orders of Battle. General Data LLC. ISBN 0-9720296-4-8.
- Roberts, Robert B. (1988). Encyclopedia of Historic Forts: The Military, Pioneer, and Trading Posts of the United States. New York: Macmillan. ISBN 0-02-926880-X.
- Weaver II, John R. (2018). A Legacy in Brick and Stone: American Coastal Defense Forts of the Third System, 1816-1867, 2nd Ed. McLean, VA: Redoubt Press. ISBN 978-1-7323916-1-1.