23 Facts About Castle Clinton

Castle Clinton is a circular sandstone fort within Battery Park at the southern end of Manhattan in New York City.

Fort Castle Clinton was originally known as the West Battery or the Southwest Battery, occupying an artificial island off the shore of Lower Manhattan.

Castle Clinton stands slightly west of where Fort Amsterdam was built in 1626, when New York City was known by the Dutch name New Amsterdam.

Fort Castle Clinton, originally known as West Battery and sometimes as Southwest Battery, was built on a small artificial island just off shore.

Atop Castle Clinton Garden was a circular promenade with a canopy above it.

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Castle Clinton Garden was surrounded by a gravel promenade and shrubbery atop a seawall.

Around 1845, Castle Clinton Garden was converted into a theater when a roof was built above the fort's interior.

Castle Clinton Garden served as an immigrant processing depot from 1855 to 1890.

The majority of immigrants processed at Castle Clinton Garden were from European countries, namely Denmark, England, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Russia, Scotland, and Sweden.

Many complaints about Castle Clinton Garden came from "runners" representing booking agents and boarding house operators, who could not intercept unwitting immigrants because of Castle Clinton Garden's strict policies.

The New York state government's initial four-year lease of Castle Clinton Garden expired in 1859, and state officials renewed their lease annually for the next ten years.

Battery Park was expanded circa 1869 using landfill, at which point the island containing Castle Clinton Garden was incorporated into the rest of Manhattan Island.

Castle Clinton Garden was the site of the New York City Aquarium from 1896 to 1941.

The interior of Castle Clinton Garden contained two circular colonnades, which supported a roof with skylights.

Castle Clinton covered the tanks' tiled surfaces with rocks, as well as reconfiguring each of the tanks' pipes to reduce energy usage.

Castle Clinton justified the demolition by saying that the fort had poor lighting and ventilation and that it required extensive repairs.

Moses opposed efforts to preserve Castle Clinton Garden, saying that the old fort "never fired a shot".

An engineer, hired by Moses to conduct a structural survey of Fort Castle Clinton, reported a "pronounced vertical crack" on the fort's walls.

Admission to Castle Clinton itself is free, and the National Park Service gives guided tours when the monument is open to the public.

Castle Clinton was one of the earliest buildings that the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission considered protecting as a New York City landmark.

Preservationists were advocating for Castle Clinton to be used as a performing-arts center by late 1972.

When it reopened, Castle Clinton hosted concerts for the public during summer weekends, and it hosted exhibits and guided tours.

Castle Clinton began selling ferry tickets to Ellis Island in 1990, when that island's main building was converted into a museum.