Fort Jay
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Fort Jay Fort Columbus |
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|---|---|
| Part of Governors Island | |
| New York, New York | |
| Type | Fortification |
| Built | 1794, 1806, 1833 |
| Built by | Jonathan Williams |
| Construction materials |
Sandstone, Granite, Brick |
| In use | 1794-1997 |
| Current condition |
Good |
| Current owner |
Public - National Park Service |
| Open to the public |
Yes |
| Controlled by | United States of America |
| Fort Jay | |
|---|---|
| U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
 |
|
| Location: | Governors Island, Manhattan, New York City, New York |
| Built/Founded: | 1808 |
| Added to NRHP: | March 27, 1974 |
| Visitation: | 55,000 (in 2007) |
| Governing body: | National Park Service |
Fort Jay is a historical United States Army star fort and from 1904 to 1966 the name of the Army post located on Governors Island in New York Harbor in New York City once known as Fort Columbus. The oldest structure on the island, it was originally built to defend Upper New York Bay, but has served other purposes.
Construction of the walls and gate of the existing fort were completed in 1808 to replace a series of earthen forts built in 1776 and 1794. Barracks on the inside of the fort date back to 1834, first as officers housing and enlisted housing, then officer's family housing from the 1930s to 1996. The three 10" and one 15" Rodman cannon that are still in place date to the American Civil War period, around 1864, and had an accurate range of nearly two miles.
The barracks inside the square shaped walls of the fort are surrounded by a five-pointed star shaped walls and a dry moat. The moat is in turn surrounded by a sloped grassy area or glacis, cleared of trees, that provided no cover for any advancing enemy forces and retard or stop cannon shot from naval ships. In the nineteenth century, the glacis was used as the post's parade ground and in the twentieth century, the Army and U.S. Coast Guard used the grass surrounding the fort as a polo field and from the mid-1930's until 1996 as a golf course (now demolished).
The entrance gate was completed in 1801 and is crowned by a sandstone carving of the United States Department of War insignia.
[edit] History
The first earthen citadel was constructed on this site and eight cannons were mounted there for the defence of New York Harbor starting in April 1776. The Americans abandoned the earthworks in August 1776 after George Washington's defeat in the Battle of Brooklyn and resulting British occupation of New York. The British Army improved the existing earthworks until they departed in 1783. In 1794, the State of New York began to finance improvements to improve the earthworks, then in ruin. Eleven years later, the first plans for restoring the fort were discussed in Congress and in 1797, and appropriation of $30,117 was made for continued construction. The State of New York conveyed Governors Island and the works at Fort Jay to the Federal government in February 1800. The earthworks were replaced by granite and brick walls and the footprint of the fort enlarged as per designs by Major Jonathan Williams, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and supervisor of fortifications in New York Harbor. The fort's walls and moat was completed in 1808.
Fort Jay was originally named for John Jay, New York governor, Supreme Court Justice, Secretary of State and one of the "founding fathers" of the United States. Jay, as George Washington's Secretary of State negotiated an unpopular, but essential treaty, the Jay Treaty, addressing unresolved issues with Great Britain in the years after the Revolutionary War. With the change in presidential administrations and the recent transfer to the federal government, the fort was named Fort Columbus for Christopher Columbus. In 1904, Secretary of War, Elihu Root named the army post on Governors Island that had evolved around the fort and restored the name of the fortification to Fort Jay.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- National Park Service website for Governors Island National Monument
- Forgotten NY
- U.S. Library of Congress: American Memory Images, drawings and data pages
- NY Military History
- Military Prison History
- Fort Jay is at coordinates Coordinates:
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