Fort Totten Park - Civil War
03/26/07
in New York City - Queens
Getting access to something you ordinarily aren't allowed into is always a thrill for me, and such places get bonus points if they are old and/or abandoned. On Saturday I attended a ranger-led tour of Fort Totten Park in Queens. All of the photos in this entry are of the unfinished Civil War era fort in the park on Long Island Sound.
The fort was intended to consist of five sides and five levels to cover both land and sea. Some people say that Robert E. Lee himself designed it, but this is still up for debate. Lee was in charge of the Corps of Engineers when plans for the fort were drawn up but it's unclear who designed it.
The fort was never finished and only two sides and two levels were built because after some testing (visible in the fourth photo) it was found that granite could not withstand the new rifled shells that started to become common once the Civil War started. Thus, the fort was abandoned and left to the mercy of the elements. Water has seeped through the stone joints (which contain no mortar) and stalactites have formed on the lower level. The powder magazine is now used as a storage space for the park's canoes.
One of the really neat aspects of the fort (seen in the last photo) was the original grafitti in a long tunnel which read, "Remember the Maine," a reference to the cause of the Spanish-American war in 1898.
