Sunday, November 29, 2009

Fort Totten


Fort Totten, formerly known as Willet's Point, is a combination of many things: park with baseball fields and swimming pool, fire department practice site, Coast Guard, military base, research center and a collection of late 19th century buildings, but mostly it is a Civil War era fort. Built in 1862, the fort was built to pair with Fort Schuyler, directly across the river. The two forts protected the entrance to the East River but it wasn't in service for very long, and since then the area has been used for a lot of different things, mostly military. The original fort remains mostly intact. It is made from reinforced concrete, so the bones are in good shape even if there isn't much trace of its contents, because I must assume that the full sized plastic cannon sitting out there is not from the Civil War.

Twice a year the Park Rangers give a tour of the tunnels that housed the ammunition, guns, bullets, artillery and other words denoting fire power. According to the ranger, the strongest gun was able to shoot accurately for 8 miles, and after they installed them, took them out since they were too long range for this location. The guns that were installed here were never fired in combat, and I think only a few times for testing. Apparently, when fired, they blew out the windows of nearby houses.
The tunnels are mostly storage areas, are pitch black (note to self: next time bring a flashlight), and full of cave crickets and graffiti. Nonetheless, it was a fun day out, and a highly recommended tour for any history buff.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! I never knew all this! Please post more. Can a person stay at Fort Totten?

Jill said...

I don't have much more to post about this place, but if I get some time (unlikely with the holidays coming and my job has been nutty) I will try to do more research, which was in the back of my mind also, because there is a lot going on there.

The Parks Department information is scarce. I don't think people can stay in those cool houses unless you are in the military or part of the programs they have there - ie I think Army Reserves might train there, and the fire department has a definite presence.

I highly recommend that you visit, even without the tunnel tour. They let us walk around the grounds without any problem, but the zipcar was due back so we couldn't spend as much time as I would have liked. There are public buses that go right to it. It's a beautiful spot right on the river, and well worth a trip to Queens.

Anonymous said...

The Old Fort was not built from reenforced concrete. It's solid granite.

http://www.forttotten.org

Jill said...

Well the words "reinforced concrete" are not in my normal vocabulary, so that is what the park rangers told us during the tour. Perhaps the underground parts where the ammunition was stored were built of concrete but the exterior is granite?

Anonymous said...

The park rangers say a lot of things that aren't true. LOL. There's no tunnel under the Sound, for instance.

The newer underground ammo bunkers were built of reenforced concrete around the time of WWI for use by the new guns, but the 1860s structure itself is of solid granite block.

http://www.forttotten.org

Anonymous said...

The park rangers say a lot of things that aren't true. LOL. There's no tunnel under the Sound, for instance.

The newer underground ammo bunkers were built of reenforced concrete around the time of WWI for use by the new guns, but the 1860s structure itself is of solid granite block.

http://www.forttotten.org