Fort Wadsworth

Fort Wadsworth occupies a commanding position on Staten Island where defenses protected the entrance to New York Harbor for generations. The landscape includes the sites of early state fortifications, the nineteenth-century Fort Tompkins and Battery Weed, later Endicott-era batteries, and military infrastructure used through both world wars and the Cold War. Renamed Fort Wadsworth in 1865 for Union General James S. Wadsworth, the post later served the Army and Navy before its transfer to the National Park Service in 1994.

Visitors can walk or bike through the 226-acre site, stop at overlooks facing the Narrows and Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, see historic batteries and military buildings, and begin at the visitor center for exhibits about New York’s coastal defenses. Access to some fort interiors is limited to ranger-led programs or special events, but the grounds themselves reveal how military engineers adapted the site over time as weapons and defensive strategy changed. Its combination of architecture, military history, open space, and harbor scenery makes Fort Wadsworth one of New York City’s most distinctive historic landscapes.