Fort Hancock and the Sandy Hook Proving Ground Historic District is a

National Historic Landmark District National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

that includes Fort Hancock and the

Sandy Hook Proving Ground The Sandy Hook Proving Ground was a military facility along the Atlantic coast of New Jersey established by the Secretary of War on August 7, 1874, to serve as the United States Army's first proving ground for the testing of ordnance and materiel ...

Sandy Hook Sandy Hook is a barrier spit in Middletown Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. The barrier spit, approximately in length and varying from wide, is located at the north end of the Jersey Shore. It encloses the southern en ...

in Middletown Township, Monmouth County,

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, United States. The district was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on April 24, 1980 and designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

on December 17, 1982. It is part of Gateway National Recreation Area, administered by the

National Parks of New York Harbor National Parks of New York Harbor is the name of an office of the National Park Service that coordinates administration of eleven NPS sites that include 23 unique destinations located in the New York metropolitan area. National Parks of New York ...

office of the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

Sandy Hook Proving Ground

Sandy Hook Proving Ground was founded in 1874 for the testing and development of artillery. It served in this role until 1918-19, a period which included the nation's rise to a position of global power. Weapons developed here were deployed for use both as coastal defenses elsewhere in the United States, and by the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

for field use. Surviving buildings associated with its use include test batteries, magazines, and a gun park, as well as bombproof observation structures and target platforms. The Sandy Hook property also includes an early life saving station built by the

United States Life-Saving Service The United States Life-Saving ServiceDespite the lack of hyphen in its insignia, the agency itself is hyphenated in government documents including: and was a United States government agency that grew out of private and local humanitarian effort ...

(a predecessor to the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

), and the 1764

Sandy Hook Light __NOTOC__ The Sandy Hook Lighthouse, located about one and a half statute miles (2.4 km) inland from the tip of Sandy Hook, New Jersey, is the oldest working lighthouse in the United States. It was designed and built on June 11, 1764 by Isa ...

, the nation's oldest working lighthouse.

Fort Hancock

Fort Hancock is the name given to the series of coastal defenses located at Sandy Hook. As it overlooks the approaches to New York Harbor, the area has been of military importance since colonial days, and has been home to a succession of defense establishments. Most of the surviving structures date to the Endicott Period beginning in the 1890s, when the area was formally named Fort Hancock. Earlier surviving structures include a single bastion from a fort dating to the period of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Completed in 1868, the fort was declared obsolete in the 1890s and most of it was torn down to reuse its stone. Although most of the surviving structures at the fort date to before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the grounds also includes a Nike missile site from the 1950s

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

period.

References

External links

Fort Hancock and Sandy Hook Proving Ground National Historic Landmark
''NPS'' {{NRHP in Monmouth County, New Jersey Middletown Township, New Jersey Sandy Hook, New Jersey Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey National Register of Historic Places in Monmouth County, New Jersey National Historic Landmarks in New Jersey New Jersey Register of Historic Places