Fort Lafayette Improvements (demolished) – Brooklyn NY

City:
Brooklyn, New York City, NY

Site Type:
Military and Public Safety

New Deal Agencies:
Work Relief Programs, Works Progress Administration (WPA)

Site Survival:
No Longer Extant

Description

The federal Work Projects Administration worked to improve the facilities at Fort Lafayette, located in an island off Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, during the early 1940s. One project involved “removing and replacing deck, sheathing, stringers, camps, bracing, fenders, and piles; improving baffles, painting, grading, filling,” and performing other related work.

“Upon the close of the War, Fort Lafayette no longer had a role in military operations, and fell in to a state of disrepair. In 1948, the Fort was transferred to the City of New York. It was demolished in 1960, and in its footprint was built a colossal tower rising 693 feet into the air, belonging to, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.” (Secret Staten Island)

Source notes

National Archives; Record Group 69: Records of the Work Projects Administration; Records of the Project Control Division; microfilm publication T937; roll 11. https://www.secretsi.com/2012/02/25/35/

Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on August 17, 2014.

Location Info


Brooklyn, NY Kings County

Location notes: A publicly inaccessible island in New York Bay

Coordinates: 40.608534, -74.038315

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