Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Battery Weed Headland

National Park Service, Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation

The Cultural Landscapes Inventory (CLI) is a comprehensive inventory of all culturally and historically significant landscapes within the National Park System. The CLI records each landscape's location, historical development, existing conditions, and management. For landscapes found to be potentially eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, the CLI provides an analysis of landscape characteristics and features, allowing for an evaluation of historic integrity and significance. The information is used at parks, regional and national offices to inform planning efforts, budget decision, and provide a vast array of information specific to the landscape of the park. 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. 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 build 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 Lond Island side.