Fort Macomb
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Fort Macomb
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Ruins of Fort Macomb, February 2006
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| Location | Orleans Parish, Louisiana |
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| Nearest city | New Orleans |
| Coordinates | 30°3′51″N 89°48′15″W / 30.06417°N 89.80417°WCoordinates: 30°3′51″N 89°48′15″W / 30.06417°N 89.80417°W |
| Area | 5 acres (2.0 ha) |
| Built | 1820 |
| NRHP Reference # | 78001429 |
| Added to NRHP | October 11, 1978 |
Fort Macomb is a 19th-century United States brick fort in Louisiana, on the western shore of Chef Menteur Pass. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The fort is adjacent to the Venetian Isles community, now legally within the city limits of New Orleans, Louisiana. This community was some miles distant from the city when first built and is still distant from the main developed portion of the city.
Chef Menteur Pass is a water route from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Pontchartrain and the lakeshore of New Orleans. (The other route is the Rigolets; both straits connect Pontchartrain to the Gulf via Lake Borgne.) An earlier fort at the site was called Fort Chef Menteur.
The United States built the current brick fort in 1822, just seven years after British forces invaded the New Orleans area from the sea, at the close of the War of 1812. It was named Fort Wood in 1827 renamed Fort Macomb in 1851, for General Alexander Macomb, former Chief of Engineers and the second Commanding General of the United States Army.
The small fort shaped like a pie wedge has a curved front facing the channel; the curve overlaps the two straight walls, forming demi-bastions. At the salient of the two straight walls is a full bastion facing landward. The fort was surrounded by two wet ditches (moats) with extensive outworks between the ditches. On the parade of the fort stands a citadel, a defensive barracks.
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Wikipedia