Battery Weed
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Battery Weed
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| Location | Fort Wadsworth Reservation, New York, New York |
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| Coordinates | 40°36′19″N 74°3′17″W / 40.60528°N 74.05472°WCoordinates: 40°36′19″N 74°3′17″W / 40.60528°N 74.05472°W |
| Area | less than 1-acre (4,000 m2) |
| Built | 1845–1861 |
| Architect | Robert E. Lee, Joseph G. Totten |
| Architectural style | Third System of US fortifications |
| NRHP Reference # | 72000908 |
| Added to NRHP | January 20, 1972 |
Battery Weed is a four-tiered 19th century fortification guarding the Narrows, the main approach from the Atlantic Ocean to New York City. Located on the Staten Island waterfront on the west shore of the Narrows, directly across from Fort Hamilton and the now-destroyed Fort Lafayette in Brooklyn, the fort was intended to protect New York from attack by sea.
The first fort on the site was built by the State of New York beginning in 1806, which was ready for service in 1808 though incomplete. This fort was built of red sandstone and named Fort Richmond, after the county in which Staten Island is located. It was protected on the landward side by the first Fort Tompkins, also built of red sandstone by the state. Although these forts were contemporary with the federal government's second system of seacoast fortifications, they were not part of the federal program. Federal rebuilding of Forts Richmond and Tompkins did not begin until 1847. This fort and others nearby were expanded and completed during the War of 1812.
By 1835 Forts Richmond and Tompkins had deteriorated to the point that they were declared unfit for use, and the next year the federal government began a decade-long process of purchasing them. In 1847 total reconstructions of both forts began, under the federal third system of seacoast fortifications, an across-the-board program of new forts sparked by the burning of Washington, DC in the War of 1812. This program resulted in the forts that are present today. Some sources state that the new Forts Richmond and Tompkins were initially designed by Robert E. Lee during his tenure as post engineer at Fort Hamilton in the 1840s. Fort Richmond had one landward front and three seacoast fronts, with an unusual four tiers of cannon totaling 116 guns to seaward, plus 24 flank howitzers on the landward front. The four-tier arrangement was only duplicated in the United States by Fort Point in San Francisco, California. The detailed design of the new Fort Richmond was by General Joseph G. Totten, and it was built between 1845 and 1861. In 1865 it was renamed Fort Wadsworth, after Brigadier General James Wadsworth, killed in the 1864 Battle of the Wilderness during the Civil War.
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