Battery Weed Headland: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Gateway National Recreation Area
Auwaerter J and Gleisner JB. 2025. Battery Weed Headland: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Gateway National Recreation Area. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 975512. National Park Service. NPS Northeast Regional Office, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
The Battery Weed headland is part of Fort Wadsworth, a former military reservation that was transferred to the Department of the Interior in 1995 as part of the Staten Island Unit of Gateway National Recreation Area (NRA) in New York. Gateway NRA, which encompasses numerous former military and city park lands in lower New York Harbor and adjoining coastal areas, was established by Congress in 1972 along with Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Francisco as the first park system specifically for urban recreation. The primary purpose of Gateway NRA is to preserve and protect, for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations, an area possessing outstanding natural, historic, and recreational features. In addition to the Battery Weed headland, Fort Wadsworth includes another other major fortification, Fort Tompkins. The reservation’s shoreline is lined by earthen batteries, most of which are hidden beneath vegetation, while the interior or upland portions historically contained support facilities such as housing and mess halls. Much of this area was redeveloped during the 1980s. Today, facilities in this area are used by the park for offices, staff housing, and a visitor center, and by other agencies including the U. S. Coast Guard and Army Reserve. The Battery Weed headland area is at the eastern edge of Fort Wadsworth and is situated below Fort Tompkins, along the western shore of the Narrows, the water passage to New York Harbor where the landforms of Staten Island and Long Island lie closest together. Here, a massive granite fort named Battery Weed built between 1847 and 1864 holds a commanding position below a 125-foot high bluff, although now greatly overshadowed by the adjoining Verrazano- Narrows Bridge completed in 1964. Battery Weed was once part of a system of fortifications protecting the Narrows that included, among others, Fort Tompkins on the bluff above, and Forts Hamilton and Lafayette on the eastern or Long Island side. The Battery Weed headland area is open to the public from dawn to dusk, and tours of the fort are available by appointment.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Auwaerter, John; Gleisner, Jean
- Date of Issue
- 2025
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- GATE , NER
- Keywords
- America Becomes A World Power, Architecture, Arms Storage, Battery, Coastal Defense, defense, Engineering, Fort Richmond, Fort Wadsworth, Fortification, Historic Designed Landscape, Interpretive Trail, landing, Leisure, lighthouse, Military, Military Facility, New York, New York Harbor, overlook, Recreation, Scenic Landscape, Staten Island, The Narrows, Transportation, view, Water Battery, Water-Related, World War I, World War II