Fort Strong (Long Island, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts)

Long Island, Boston Harbor · Massachusetts · World War I, World War II, Cold War

Quick BriefFort Strong was a former U.S. Army Coast Artillery fort occupying the northern third of Long Island in Boston Harbor. Built between 1893 and 1906 during the Endicott period of coastal defense expansion, the fort was part of the Coast Defenses of Boston. Declared surplus in 1947, it served as a Nike missile site until 1961, after which it remained inaccessible with minimal remains.

Endicott SystemCoastal defense

History & Significance

Military use of Long Island began during the American Civil War when the government acquired the Long Island House hotel for Camp Wightman, a training encampment named after Mayor Joseph Wightman, with the Irish-American soldiers of the 9th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment arriving in May 1861 and departing for Virginia that June. In 1871 the fort's defenses were improved with a new battery of 28 heavy guns, but despite this upgrade the state of harbor island forts remained inadequate until the government began serious improvements in 1899.

The fort's main armament consisted of two batteries of 10-inch guns on disappearing carriages totaling five guns—two in Battery Ward and three in Battery Hitchcock—with construction beginning in 1893 and completing in 1899. During World War I, soldiers of the 55th Artillery Regiment garrisoned the fort but its use was minimal; from 1922 through the interwar years it ceased operation but was reactivated in World War II to serve as a control and maintenance hub for northern harbor minefields.

From 1945 to 1946 the fort hosted a secret Army Intelligence Service post where German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and six other German scientists were detained. Following the war, the fort housed Nike Ajax surface-to-air missile silos during the early Cold War, though this program became obsolete by the late 1950s, ending the century-long military presence on Long Island.