Free previewStop 9 of Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan Walking Tour
The Fort That Fired at Nobody
You're standing in the Battery, at the very bottom of Manhattan, in front of a low, round fort. Look at the walls. That's red sandstone, quarried in New Jersey and stacked into a near-perfect circle, with one short straight side. It has had more lives than almost any building in this city, and it never once did the job it was built for.
This was Lenape ground first. They called this rocky tip of the island Kapsee, a rocky ledge, and the Dutch borrowed the word. Two centuries later, with war against Britain looming, the young United States built this fort from 1808 to 1811. Back then it didn't sit in a park. It sat on a little artificial island just offshore, with 28 heavy cannon and a wooden bridge to the mainland. They named it for DeWitt Clinton, the city's mayor.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 9 of Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan Walking Tour (3 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
