Historic Structure Report: Fort Jay Gate

Yocum, Barbara

This historic structure report updates the 2005 Fort Jay Historic Structure Report by providing in-depth information on the “gate,” or main entrance, of Fort Jay. Components of the gate are a monumental stone arch surmounted by a stone sculpture, a bridge, sally port, and guardhouse. The gate dates to the reconstruction of the revolutionary-era fortification by the State of New York in 1794-95, under the direction of French engineers Charles and Joseph Mangin. Surviving elements from that time are a sally-port tunnel entered through a monumental arch made of sandstone. A contemporary sandstone sculpture adorning the arch depicts the military insignia of the New York Artillery. Major improvements by the U.S. Army in the mid-1830s extended the sally port through a new barrack to the west, lined the original sally port with granite stones, and replaced an early guardhouse with the existing brick structure. Drawbridge machinery of 1830s vintage and sandstone piers are all that remains of an early wooden bridge that was replaced in 1951-52 by an existing concrete bridge. Renovation of the guardhouse by the U.S. Army in 1938 installed new floors and replaced or recoated plaster walls and ceilings. The U.S. Coast Guard may have been responsible for the installation of exterior metal doors and installation of brick blocking at the windows sometime between 1966 and 1982-83. Several improvements have been made to Fort Jay’s gate since creation of Governors Island National Monument in 2001. The National Park Service hung new steel-tube doors at the sally-port entrance in 2005, installed a new roof on the guardhouse in 2008, and repaired the concrete deck of the bridge in 2011. Plans are currently underway to stabilize and repair the stone arch and its sculpture following damage inflicted by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The purpose of this report was to provide baseline information for proposed work on a component of Fort Jay’s gate. Funding was provided by a PMIS project #152402 to “Stabilize and Preserve Guard House at Fort Jay.”

Historic Structure Report: Fort Jay Gate

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