Fort Lafayette (2)
Fort Lafayette (2) (1812-1946) - A U.S. Army Coastal Fort established in 1812 during the War of 1812 as Fort Diamond. The fort was located on Hendricks Reef in New York Harbor, just off Brooklyn in Kings County, New York. Renamed Fort Lafayette on 26 Mar 1823 after General Lafayette, hero of the Revolutionary War. Used by the Union during the U.S. Civil War as a prison. Burned in 1868 and used for a variety of military purposes until finally abandoned in 1946.
Fort Lafayette (2) History
Constructed between 1812 and 1818 as casemated brick coastal fort with gun positions for some 70 cannons in three tiers. The fort was a 270 foot square sandstone structure with 8-foot thick walls 30 feet high.
U.S. Civil War (1861-1865)
During the U.S. Civil War the casemates of Fort Lafayette were used to house both Confederate prisoners of war and political prisoners who had somehow demonstrated support for the southern cause. The Fort came to be known as the "the Brooklyn Bastille".
On 1 Dec 1868 the Fort was swept by a fire that gutted the interior and necessitated a complete rebuilding. Some of the gun platforms on the upper tiers had been constructed with wood floors to save weight. This wood construction fed the fire.
In 1883 the fort was used by Captain Edmund Louis Gray Zalinski to conducted experiments with his dynamite gun.
During World War I and World War II the Fort was used to store munitions for the U.S. Navy.
In January 1960 the Fort and Hendricks Reef were destroyed to make way for the North Tower of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
Current Status
Destroyed for construction of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge between Staten Island and Brooklyn, New York.
USGS Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) Database Entry: 2104427
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Location: Hendricks Reef in New York Harbor just off Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. Maps & Images Lat: 40.608333 Long: -74.038611 |
Sources:
- Roberts, Robert B., Encyclopedia of Historic Forts: The Military, Pioneer, and Trading Posts of the United States, Macmillan, New York, 1988, 10th printing, ISBN 0-02-926880-X, page 563-564
Links:
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