Fort Tilden
Address:
Gateway National Recreation Area
Rockaway Peninsula
Queens
Category: Harbor Defenses
Open to the public. Hiking trails pass the buried remains of gun platforms and abandoned batteries are used for observing raptors and other birds.
Built: 1917
Owner: National Park Service
Jamaica Bay Unit, Gateway National Recreation Area
Description: Military post and naval air station on 317 acres named for former Governor Samuel J. Tilden. Battery Harris worked together with a battery six miles across the harbor at Fort Hancock in New Jersey. A Nike missile site for much of the cold war, Fort Tilden was active to 1974.
