Gate of Fort Washington (Cambridge, Massachusetts) (2)

Fort Washington, also known as Fort Washington Park, is a historic site at 95 Waverly Street in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

. It was built by soldiers of the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...

under the orders of

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

in November 1775. It is the oldest surviving fortification from the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

and the only surviving fortification from the

Siege of Boston The siege of Boston (April 19, 1775 – March 17, 1776) was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War. New England militiamen prevented the movement by land of the British Army, which was garrisoned in what was then the peninsular town ...

. Fort Washington was placed on the

List of Registered Historic Places in Massachusetts This is a list of properties and districts in Massachusetts listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There are over 4,300 listings in the state, representing about 5% of all NRHP listings nationwide and the second-most of any U.S. sta ...

on April 3, 1973.

History

American Revolution

In a letter to Joseph Reed written at Cambridge in November 1775, George Washington wrote, "I have caused two three gun half moon batteries to be thrown up for occasional use." At the time these small fortifications were constructed,

Henry Knox Henry Knox (July 25, 1750 – October 25, 1806), a Founding Father of the United States, was a senior general of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, serving as chief of artillery in most of Washington's campaigns. Following the ...

was on his way to

Fort Ticonderoga Fort Ticonderoga (), formerly Fort Carillon, is a large 18th-century star fort built by the French at a narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain, in northern New York, in the United States. It was constructed by Canadian-born French milit ...

to get the best of the cannons which were there and at

Fort Crown Point Fort Crown Point was built by the combined efforts of both British and provincial troops (from New York and the New England Colonies) in North America in 1759 at a narrows on Lake Champlain on what later became the border between New York and Vermo ...

, a three-month exercise known as the ''

noble train of artillery The noble train of artillery, also known as the Knox Expedition, was an expedition led by Continental Army Colonel Henry Knox to transport heavy weaponry that had been captured at Fort Ticonderoga to the Continental Army camps outside Boston d ...

''. The troops needed to be trained in constructing works in which the guns could be mounted promptly.

Post war

The property was acquired by the City of Cambridge and restored in 1857, at which time three 18-pounder cannons from the old Fort Winthrop, located on

Governor's Island Governors Island is a island in New York Harbor, within the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located approximately south of Manhattan Island, and is separated from Brooklyn to the east by the Buttermilk Channel. The National Park ...

, were installed, and an elaborate granite and iron fence was designed by architect John R. Hall to protect the site. A description of the property at the time of that transfer was later compiled by local historians: The Cambridge

city directory A city directory is a listing of residents, streets, businesses, organizations or institutions, giving their location in a city. It may be arranged alphabetically or geographically or in other ways. Antedating telephone directories, they were i ...

of 1861 reported the earthworks to be five years old in appearance and in excellent condition; the total cost of Fort Washington Park, was $9,504.05. In 1965 the state passed legislation authorizing the city of Cambridge to transfer the park to the United States government as a historic landmark. The property remains a city park and is designated an historic district of the City of Cambridge. The park was rededicated on October 3, 2009, Cambridgeport History Day, following restoration work. What remains today are only grassy embankments, not substantial fortifications.

Cannons

The guns standing in the embrasures are 18-pounders and were cast during or shortly after the Revolution. The two 18-pound cannon at Stonington were cast in 1781 in

Salisbury, Connecticut Salisbury () is a town situated in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The town is the northwesternmost in the state of Connecticut; the Massachusetts-New York-Connecticut tri-state marker is located at the northwest corner of the town ...

during the Revolution. There are also two 18-pound cannon at Mount Defiance in

Ticonderoga, New York Ticonderoga (, moh, Tekaniataró:ken) is a town in Essex County, New York, United States. The population was 5,042 at the 2010 census. The name comes from the Mohawk ''tekontaró:ken'', meaning "it is at the junction of two waterways". The Tow ...

which are also from the Revolution and of a similar cast. The three 18-pounders were among those over-age cannon that were removed from the original Fort Warren on Governor's Island, when a new Fort Warren was built on George's Island. Mr. Marcus Morton, of Cambridge, learned by correspondence with the Historical Section of the Chief of Ordnance in Washington, in 1942, that the gun carriages were cast by the

West Point Foundry The West Point Foundry was a major American ironworking and machine shop site in Cold Spring, New York, operating from 1818 to about 1911. Initiated after the War of 1812, it became most famous for its production of Parrott rifle artillery and ot ...

on the Hudson River, and he discovered in the city records that it cost the city $13.50 to bring these guns from Governor's Island to Cambridge. These cannon are identical, except for the numbers and weights marked upon them. They are numbered 45, 36, and 40; and their weighs are shown as 30-0-13, 30-0-17, and 30-0-16, respectively, (in cwt., qrs., and lbs.). Those figures correspond to 3375, 3377, and 3376 pounds. The bore is approximately 5 5/8 inches; the diameter of an 18-pound sphere of cast iron is 5.1 inches; the excess diameter of the bore (called windage) was usually about ¼ inch, or a little bit more, to allow for irregularities in the bore of the guns and the casting of the balls. The next larger standard size for cannon of that period was 24 lb., which would require a bore of at least 5.9 inches.

Image gallery

The following images are from the Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey, Survey number HABS MA-2-48, MARCH 1934:.Library of Congress, Historic American Buildings Survey, Survey number HABS MA-2-48, link
/ref> File:FT_WASH1.pdf, Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)3-1934-1 File:FT_WASH2.pdf, Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)3-1934-2 File:FT_WASH3.pdf, Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)3-1934-3 File:FT_WASH4.pdf, Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)3-1934-4

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Buildings and structures in Cambridge, Massachusetts