Fort Strong
Encyclopedia
Long Island (Massachusetts)
This article is about the island Long Island, Boston. For other islands called Long Island, see Long Island .Long Island is situated in the middle of Boston Harbor, Massachusetts. The island is part of the City of Boston, and of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area...
in Boston Harbor
Boston Harbor
Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the northeast.-History:...
.
It was originally named Long Island Military Reservation until 1899.
Camp Wightman, a Civil War training camp, was located on the island in 1861.
At the end of the Civil War, the government decided to keep Fort Strong which had been located in East Boston, and move it to Long Island. It was officially designated in 1867 as being located on Long Island. In 1899, the fort was named after Maj. Gen. George Crockett Strong
George Crockett Strong
George Crockett Strong was a Union brigadier general in the American Civil War.-Biography:Strong was born in Stockbridge, Vermont, and attended Williston Seminary but left after 1851. He attended Union College, but left for the U.S. Military Academy, from which he graduated in 1857...
, a Civil War hero.
The gun blocks and magazine of Long Island Head Battery (1874–1876), a 10-gun battery, still remain.
Endicott period batteries
Endicott Board
Several boards have been appointed by US presidents or Congress to evaluate the US defensive fortifications, primarily coastal defenses near strategically important harbors on the US shores, its territories, and its protectorates.-Endicott Board:...
which were located here:
- Battery Hitchcock (1899–1939)
- Battery Ward (1899–1939)
- Battery Drum (1899–1917)
- Battery Smyth (1906–1921)
- Battery Stevens (1906–1946)
- Battery Taylor (1906–1942)
- Battery Basinger (1901–1947)
A two-gun AA battery was built in the 1920s, extended to three guns in 1935. A mine casemate was constructed in 1906, which commanded the northern channel (President Roads) harbor minefields until replaced by Fort Dawes in 1944.
Fort Strong was a NIKE
Project Nike
Project Nike was a U.S. Army project, proposed in May 1945 by Bell Laboratories, to develop a line-of-sight anti-aircraft missile system. The project delivered the United States' first operational anti-aircraft missile system, the Nike Ajax, in 1953...
missile launch site in the 1950s, with the control site in Squantum
Quincy, Massachusetts
Quincy is a city in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Its nicknames are "City of Presidents", "City of Legends", and "Birthplace of the American Dream". As a major part of Metropolitan Boston, Quincy is a member of Boston's Inner Core Committee for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council...
. The Radar Section, 15th AAA Group, was there from January 1958 to June 1961.
This property had been owned by the Long Island Hospital, and is now operated by The Boston Public Health Commission.
