14 Facts About Fort Hamilton

Fort Hamilton is a United States Army installation in the southwestern corner of the New York City borough of Brooklyn, surrounded by the communities of Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights.

The new forts, including Fort Hamilton, were eventually termed the third system of US seacoast forts.

The cornerstone for Fort Hamilton was set in place by its designer, Simon Bernard, on June 11,1825.

Fort Hamilton was designed primarily as a landward defense for Fort Lafayette, although it had a sea-facing front as well.

Fort Hamilton Lafayette was offshore on Hendricks Reef, and was demolished in the 1960s to make room for the eastern tower of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.

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Fort Hamilton served as a prisoner-of-war camp, and an exterior "New Battery" of guns was added.

Fort Hamilton became part of the Artillery District of New York, renamed in 1913 as the Coast Defenses of Southern New York.

Also, several of Fort Hamilton's guns were dismounted for potential service on the Western Front; however, very few Army Coast Artillery weapons were actually used in that war, due to shipping priorities and extensive training.

In World War II Fort Hamilton primarily served as a mobilization center, as it had in World War I Except for the two remaining 6-inch pedestal guns of Battery Livingston and the pair of 3-inch guns at Battery Griffin, the remaining guns were gradually scrapped; the pair of 16-inch guns at the Highlands Military Reservation in New Jersey along with Fort Tilden superseded the older defenses.

Fort Hamilton is the only active-duty DoD military post in New York City.

Fort Hamilton was once a sister fortification to Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island.

At present, US Army Fort Hamilton Garrison is the home of the New York City Recruiting Battalion, the Military Entrance Processing Station, the North Atlantic Division Headquarters of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the 1179th Transportation Brigade and the 722nd Aeromedical Staging Squadron, the latter organization being a geographically separated unit of the 439th Airlift Wing of the Air Force Reserve Command.

Currently Fort Hamilton is under Installation Management Command headquartered at Fort Sam Houston, TX.

Fort Hamilton is the setting for nearly all of Nelson DeMille's novel, Word of Honor.