• Fort Washington

    Fort Washington

    Park Maryland

Nature & Science

An American Kestrel perched at Battery Decatur.

American Kestrel

NPS - Gant

Fort Washington Park offers visitors an exciting chance to see many of the birds and animals of the mid-atlanitc region. The park protects over 900 acres of varied habitat from the shoreline on the Potomac to meadows and forest.

Did You Know?

The explosion aboard the USS Princeton in 1844 occured on the river near Fort Washington.

In 1844, President John Tyler was almost killed on the river near Fort Washington, when an experimental cannon exploded aboard the USS Princeton. Six were killed(including Secretary of State Abel Upshaw & Secretary of the Navy Thomas Gilmer) , 20 were injured. The accident prompted Thomas Jackson Rodman to develop a new way of casting artillery and the creation of  the 15inch Rodman Gun, like the ones that can be seen at Fort Foote.