Fort Hancock

Fort Hancock is a former United States Army fort at Sandy Hook in Middletown Township, New Jersey. The coastal artillery base defended the Atlantic coast and the entrance to New York Harbor, with its first gun batteries operational in 1896. The fort served from then until 1950 as part of the Harbor Defenses of New York and predecessor organizations. Between 1874 and 1919, the adjacent US Army Sandy Hook Proving Ground was operated in conjunction with Fort Hancock. It is now part of Fort Hancock Memorial Park. It was preceded by the Fort at Sandy Hook, built 1857–1867 and demolished beginning in 1885.

The Sandy Hook Light, built in 1764 and the oldest working lighthouse in the United States, is located on the grounds of Fort Hancock.

Text adapted from “Fort Hancock (New Jersey)” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fort Hancock ranks #2,846 of 5,793 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #80 of the 98 mapped in United States. Founded 1857, it is older than 9% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 407 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. See how United States compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗