Fort Lafayette
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Fort Lafayette was an island coastal fortification in New York Harbor, built next to Fort Hamilton at the southern tip of what is now Bay Ridge in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Construction of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge forced the fort's destruction in 1960; the Brooklyn-side bridge pillars now occupy the fort's former foundation site.
Constructed on Hendrick's Reef during the War of 1812 and finally completed in 1818, Fort Diamond was renamed in 1825 to celebrate the Marquis de La Fayette, hero of the American Revolution who was returning to his native France after his year-long tour of the United States.
In the years before the 1861, the fort's 72 heavy cannon commanded the primary approaches to the harbor, but during the Civil War, the casemates were used to house Confederate prisoners of war and politicians opposed to Abraham Lincoln's administration policies. Rebuilt after a catastophic fire in 1868, the fort was later used for ammunition storage and transfer until World War II.
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[edit] References
Marshall, John A., American Bastille: A history of the illegal arrests and imprisonment of American citizens during the late Civil War (Civil liberties in American history) ISBN 1-4179-3078-0
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