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Harbor Defenses of New York

Commons category link is locally definedForts in New JerseyForts in New York CityMilitary history of New York CityMilitary units and formations in New Jersey
Military units and formations in New York (state)Port of New York and New JerseyUnited States Army Coast Artillery Corps
Fort Hamilton Bain LOC 01939
Fort Hamilton Bain LOC 01939

The Harbor Defenses of New York was a United States Army Coast Artillery Corps harbor defense command. It coordinated the coast defenses of New York City from 1895 to 1950, beginning with the Endicott program, some of which were located in New Jersey. These included both coast artillery forts and underwater minefields. The command originated circa 1895 as an Artillery District(s) and became the Coast Defenses of Eastern New York and Coast Defenses of Southern New York in 1913. Circa 1915 the Coast Defenses of Sandy Hook separated from the latter command. In 1925 the commands were renamed as Harbor Defense Commands, and in 1935 the Harbor Defenses of Eastern New York was almost entirely disarmed, although possibly retaining the minefield capability. The New York and Sandy Hook commands and the Harbor Defenses of Long Island Sound were unified as the Harbor Defenses of New York on 9 May 1942.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Harbor Defenses of New York (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Harbor Defenses of New York
Sterling Drive, New York Brooklyn

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N 40.608611111111 ° E -74.032222222222 °
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Fort Hamilton Community Club (Building 207)

Sterling Drive
11252 New York, Brooklyn
New York, United States
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Website
hamilton.armymwr.com

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Fort Hamilton Bain LOC 01939
Fort Hamilton Bain LOC 01939
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Harbor Defense Museum

The Harbor Defense Museum, sometimes called The Caponier, located within the grounds of Fort Hamilton in the Bay Ridge section of Brooklyn is a 19th-century fort, New York City's only military museum and one of only seventy military museums in the United States that is funded and operated by the Defense Department.Caponiers, the technical name of the structure that now houses the museum, are outworks; in the case of Fort Hamilton its mission was to protect the main fortress from rear attacks. Originally a small fort within the larger fort, it now serves as the guardian of Fort Hamilton's history. Robert E. Lee served at Fort Hamilton in the 1840s, when there was only one Army. Because it was used as a warehouse after it was no longer needed for military purposes, it was better preserved than other parts of the fort. While the museum and fort were in danger of closing in the mid-1990s due to budget cuts, it was preserved due to an agreement between the fort and the United States Army Center of Military History and preservation efforts of the Fort Hamilton Historic Society. The museum continues to serve an educational role in explaining the history of the evolution of New York Harbor.Fort Hamilton is the "second-oldest continuously garrisoned federal post in the nation", second only to West Point and its ties to the community are part of the charm of the museum and the fort. Although The Caponier was always prepared for battle, with a 24-pound cannon aimed at New York Harbor, the fort never experienced a battle. The museum houses an array of artifacts from New York's military history including American Revolutionary War relics, uniforms from various wars, old maps of the fort, the post's old switchboard, an exhibit on a secret tunnel that connected Fort Hamilton with another base a half-mile away, a Confederate mine and a piece of the net that protected New York Harbor from German U-boats in World War I. It is also the temporary home of a Bay Ridge time capsule that was unearthed prematurely due to construction.

John Paul Jones Park
John Paul Jones Park

John Paul Jones Park is a public park located in Fort Hamilton, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. The park borders Shore Road, Fourth Avenue, 101st Street, and Fort Hamilton Parkway. The park is managed by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, which acquired the property from the city of Brooklyn in 1897.John Paul Jones Park is named after the American patriot and naval commander of the same name, who was known for his leadership in the American Revolution. He is often referred to as "the father of the Navy." John Paul Jones Park is home to several memorials from various events in American history: Rodman gun: a massive, black, twenty-inch bore that was created in 1864 by artilleryman Thomas Jackson Rodman. It was originally situated in Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania, but was presented to the park by the United States Military in 1900. Today it dominates the park along with cannon balls that surrounds the landscape and is part of the Civil War Memorial. Revolutionary War Memorial: contains a bronze tablet that is inscribed into a granite boulder. This plaque was granted by the Long Island Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1916 to commemorate the first resistance made to British arms in New York in August 1776. Dover Patrol Naval War Memorial: features a monument that was gifted by Sir Ashton Webb in 1931, from England after World War I. It serves as a dedication to the Dover Patrol for its service and comradeship in the American Naval Force in Europe during the first World War. The monument has a pyramid-shaped copper capstone at the top of the obelisk. In addition to these memorials is a 70 foot tall flag pole that once belonged to a Navy destroyer. It was added to the park in 1980 alongside a plaque that reads "in honor of John Paul Jones, the father of the Navy."

Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge
Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge ( vər-ə-ZAH-noh; also referred to as the Verrazzano Bridge, locally as the Verrazzano, and formerly as the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge or Narrows Bridge) is a suspension bridge connecting the New York City boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn. It spans the Narrows, a body of water linking the relatively enclosed New York Harbor with Lower New York Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. It is the only fixed crossing of the Narrows. The double-deck bridge carries 13 lanes of Interstate 278: seven on the upper level and six on the lower level. The span is named for Giovanni da Verrazzano, who in 1524 was the first European explorer to enter New York Harbor and the Hudson River. Engineer David B. Steinman proposed a bridge across the Narrows in the late 1920s, but plans were deferred over the next twenty years. A 1920s attempt to build a Staten Island Tunnel was aborted, as was a 1930s plan for vehicular tubes underneath the Narrows. Discussion of a tunnel resurfaced in the mid-1930s and early 1940s, but the plans were again denied. In the late 1940s, urban planner Robert Moses championed a bridge across the Narrows as a way to connect Staten Island with the rest of the city. Various problems delayed the start of construction until 1959. Designed by Othmar Ammann, Leopold Just, and other engineers at Ammann & Whitney, the bridge opened on November 21, 1964, and a lower deck in 1969 to alleviate high levels of traffic. The New York City government began a $1.5 billion reconstruction of the bridge's two decks in 2014. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge has a central span of 4,260 feet (1.30 km; 0.81 mi). It was the longest suspension bridge in the world until it was surpassed by the Humber Bridge in the United Kingdom in 1981. The bridge has the 18th-longest main span in the world, as well as the longest in the Americas. When the bridge was officially named in 1960, it was misspelled "Verrazano-Narrows Bridge" due to an error in the construction contract; the name was officially corrected in 2018. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge collects tolls in both directions, although only westbound drivers paid a toll from 1986 to 2020 in an attempt to reduce traffic congestion.