Finns Point

Finn's Point National Cemetery is a United States National Cemetery located in Pennsville Township, Salem County, New Jersey, United States. It encompasses 4.6 acres (1.9 ha), and as of February 2009, had 3,033 interments. Adjacent to Fort Mott, it is governed by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and administered by the Washington Crossing National Cemetery.

Fort Mott, located in Pennsville, Salem County, New Jersey, United States, was part of the Harbor Defenses of the Delaware, a three-fort defense system designed for the Delaware River during the Reconstruction era and Endicott program modernization periods following the American Civil War and in the 1890s. The other two forts in the system were Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island and Fort DuPont in Delaware City, Delaware. It was active for the Spanish American War and World War I. It was closed in 1944, and sold to the state of New Jersey to become Fort Mott State Park.

Killcohook National Wildlife Refuge (founded as Killcohook Migratory Bird Refuge) was a National Wildlife Refuge located on the east bank of the Delaware River adjacent to the current Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. It had originally been established in 1934 as a secondary dredged material disposal site for use by the Army Corps of Engineers. Its status as a refuge was revoked in 1998 by the U.S. Congress and it is currently used as a confined disposal facility by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Fort Delaware State Park is a 288-acre (117 ha) Delaware state park on Pea Patch Island in New Castle County, Delaware. A fortress was built on Pea Patch Island by the United States Army in 1815, near the conclusion of the War of 1812, to protect the harbors of Wilmington, Delaware and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The fort was burned and rebuilt in the years prior to the American Civil War, and soon after the start of the war the fort was converted to a Prisoner of War camp. Fort Delaware continued to protect the mouth of the Delaware River through World War I and II. Pea Patch Island and Fort Delaware was declared surplus land by the United States Department of Defense in 1945. Fort Delaware State Park, one of the first state parks in Delaware, was established in 1951. The park, which can only be accessed by ferry, is open for historic programs at Fort Delaware. The fort is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In addition to historical preservation, Fort Delaware State Park is also open for picnicking and hiking. Visitors to the park may reach it by ferry from Delaware City or Fort Mott State Park in New Jersey. Fort Delaware State Park is 0.5-mile (800 m) from Delaware City via the Forts Ferry Crossing. Passengers aboard the ferry are granted access to Fort Mott State Park.

Pea Patch Island is a small island, approximately 1 mi (1.6 km) long, in the U.S. state of Delaware, located in the mid channel of the Delaware River near its entrance into Delaware Bay. It is a low, marshy island, located in New Castle County, facing Delaware City on the Delaware shore, and Finns Point on the New Jersey shore. Once the location of strategic military defenses, the island is currently owned by the State of Delaware as Fort Delaware State Park. The island emerged as a mud bank in the river in the 18th century. According to folklore, the island received its name after a ship full of peas ran aground on it, spilling its contents and leading to a growth of the plant on the island. In the 1790s, Pierre L'Enfant suggested the use of the island as part of the defenses of New Castle, Delaware and Philadelphia. During the War of 1812, a seawall and dykes were built on the island, with a view to building a Martello tower there. By 1814, the island had been sufficiently developed for the construction of the first Fort Delaware. A five-pointed star fort was built 1815–1824. However, this fort was wrecked by a fire in 1831. Construction began on a much larger polygonal fort in 1836, but this project was derailed by a decade-long legal battle over which state owned the island, which was won by Delaware. Construction then began in 1848 on the current fort, with an irregular pentagon design about the size of the previous star fort. The fort was substantially complete by 1860. During the American Civil War, Fort Delaware was used by the Union as a camp for Confederate prisoners, in particular ones captured at the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg. Many of the prisoners and some guards who died at the fort are buried at nearby Finns Point National Cemetery in New Jersey. Around the turn of the century, a large battery for three then-modern 12-inch guns on disappearing carriages was built in the fort as part of the Endicott program, with batteries for smaller guns elsewhere on the island. On the shores flanking the island, Fort DuPont and Fort Mott were built with modern weapons, and preparations were made to lay underwater minefields in the river. The defenses around Pea Patch Island were disarmed during World War II, as Fort Miles at the mouth of the Delaware estuary superseded them. In the early 20th century, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredged a channel around the island, using the infill to double the island's size on its northern end. The island is publicly accessible by ferry from both the Delaware and New Jersey banks. In addition to the historic features of the state park, the island provides a significant wetlands stop for migratory birds along the Atlantic Flyway. It is the location of the largest colony of herons in the U.S. north of Florida.

Fort Delaware is a former harbor defense facility, designed by chief engineer Joseph Gilbert Totten and located on Pea Patch Island in the Delaware River. During the American Civil War, the Union used Fort Delaware as a prison for Confederate prisoners of war, political prisoners, federal convicts, and privateer officers. A three-gun concrete battery of 12-inch guns, later named Battery Torbert, was designed by Maj. Charles W. Raymond and built inside the fort in the 1890s. By 1900, the fort was part of a three fort concept, the first forts of the Coast Defenses of the Delaware, working closely with Fort Mott in Pennsville, New Jersey, and Fort DuPont in Delaware City, Delaware. The fort and the island currently belong to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) and encompass a living history museum, located in Fort Delaware State Park.

Finn's Point Rear Range Light is located at the intersection of Fort Mott and Lighthouse roads on Finns Point in Pennsville Township of Salem County, New Jersey. The range light was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 30, 1978, for its significance in engineering. It has been incorporated into the Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

The Finns Point Range Rear Light is a lighthouse in Pennsville Township, Salem County, New Jersey. It is located just east of the Delaware River and was part of Range light pair that guided ships into the Delaware River. It is deactivated, and its lamp and lens have been removed, but the lighthouse is open to the public as part of a National Wildlife Refuge. It was designed and built in 1877 and is a classic example of a skeletal cast iron prefabricated lighthouse. Its companion Front range light was demolished and replaced with an offshore automated light in 1938. Both the Rear and replacement Front lights were deactivated in 1950.

The William and Margaret Mecum House is located at 168 Lighthouse Road in Pennsville Township of Salem County, New Jersey, United States. Built in 1737, the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 5, 2018, for its significance in architecture. The house is part of the Traditional Patterned Brickwork Buildings in New Jersey Multiple Property Submission (MPS).

The Supawna Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is a component of the Delaware River estuary in Salem County, New Jersey, it is just north of the Salem River and south of Pennsville. The Delaware Bay and estuary are wetlands of international importance and an international shorebird reserve. The refuge currently owns approximately 3,000 acres (12 km2) within the 4,600-acre (19 km2) approved boundary. The brackish water tidal marshes and coastal forests that make up nearly 80 percent of the refuge provide waterfowl with a feeding and resting area, particularly during the fall and spring migrations. American black ducks, mallards and northern pintails are common winter visitors. Sandpipers and other shorebirds use the refuge marshes as a feeding area during the summer as well as during the spring and fall migrations. The rookery at nearby Pea Patch Island hosts over 6,000 pairs of nine species, making it the largest rookery of colonial wading birds on the east coast north of Florida. The refuge marshes provide valuable foraging habitat for these colonial wading birds during the nesting season. Warblers, sparrows and other migratory birds use the upland areas of the refuge as resting and feeding areas during migration and for nesting during the summer. Thousands of tree swallows forage on the refuge in the late summer. Ospreys, bald eagle, northern harrier, short-eared owl and barn owl nest on the refuge. Supawna meadows lies in the Southeastern mixed forests ecoregion. There are stands of southern wild rice here too.

Delaware City is a city in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. The population was 1,885 as of 2020. It is a small port town on the eastern terminus of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and is the location of the Forts Ferry Crossing to Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island.

Fort DuPont, named in honor of Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont, is located between the original Delaware City and the modern Chesapeake and Delaware Canal on the original Reeden Point tract, which was granted to Henry Ward in 1675. Along with two other forts of the Harbor Defenses of the Delaware, it defended the Delaware River and the water approach to Philadelphia from 1900 through 1942. In 2016, the acreage which is not in the state park system was annexed into Delaware City. The first fortification built was the Ten Gun Battery, an auxiliary to nearby Fort Delaware during the American Civil War. The Twenty Gun Battery was constructed on the reservation during the 1870s, later followed by a mine control casemate for an underwater minefield in 1876. In 1897-1904, Endicott-era emplacements were constructed for long-range rifles, mortars, and rapid-fire guns. In 1922 the post became headquarters for the 1st Engineer Regiment, which remained at the post until 1941. During World War II, Fort DuPont served as a mobilization station for deploying units, and contained a prisoner-of-war camp for captured German soldiers and sailors. After the war, Fort DuPont was declared surplus and offered to the Veterans Administration for use as a veterans hospital. After they declined, the state bought the site at a 100 percent discount and adapted existing structures for reuse. In 1948, it officially opened as the Governor Walter W. Bacon Health Center. In 1992 a portion was redesignated as Fort DuPont State Park, which became Delaware's 13th state park. In 1999 the site was officially designated the Fort DuPont Historic District after it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The historic district comprises Fort DuPont State Park and the Governor Bacon Health Center. The site is currently being redeveloped by the Fort DuPont Redevelopment and Preservation Corporation.