Battery Caitlin

Battery Catlin is one of several smaller fortifications that dot Fort Wadsworth’s landscape. Due to Battery Weed’s lack of lack of capacity for anything larger than the 10-inch Rodman guns, other batteries were constructed to mount larger cannons, like the 15-inch Rodman guns that would have been located here and at the South Cliff Battery. In 1885 President Grover Cleveland created the Endicott Board, which was tasked with updating the increasingly obsolete coastal fortification system in the United States with the latest in military technology. The concrete batteries scattered around the tour route like Battery Catlin are the remnants of this system of fortification, most of which were constructed between 1890 and 1910.

Advancements in military technology in the 20^th century led to the construction of more forts located even further out, like Fort Tilden in the Rockways and Fort Hancock at Sandy Hook. Following WWI the use of planes in combat completely changed the nature of warfare and defense; anti-aircraft guns were added to Fort Wadsworth’s batteries to attempt to deal with this new threat.

How would you have felt as an immigrant travelling to Ellis Island passing through the narrows? Would the massive fortifications have assured you or intimidated you?