Throgsneck

History of Throgs Neck and Maritime College.

"In September 1642, John Throgmorton , with 35 families applied to the Dutch authorities in Niew Amsterdam for permission to settle in. Permission was granted in October 1642, and the conlonists settled on the long neck lying south of what is Eastchester Bay today and named it Throgmorton's Neck after their leader. By the time of the American Revolution, the name had been contracted to Throgg's Neck. Throgmorton and his colony thrived for short time, for in the later part of 1643, the Siwanoy Indians attacked the colony and destroyed it. Eighteen persons were massacred. Fortunately, at the time of the attack, a passing boat managed to land at the Neck and helped the remaining colonist to escape to safety. Throgmorton escaped but didn't return to his colony after the massacre. " (Hamilton, Harlan. Throgs Neck Light. 1-2)

Fort is built at Throgs Neck.

"As New York City developed into the nations largest seaport and business center, the strategic value of Throgs Neck as a site for defense of the seaward approaches to the city from Long Island Sound became apparent. Construction of a fort was considered in 1818, and on July 26, 1826, the federal government purchased fifty-two acres of land from William Bayard. Construction of a fort began in 1833 with I.L. Smith as the architect. New England stone masons erected the thick walls of the fort using granite blocks ferried down from Greenwich, Connecticut. Irish laborers did much of the manual labor such as driving teams of horses and unloading the barges. Other Irish ran taverns that sprang up in Schuylerville where East Tremont and Bruckner Boulevard are today.

Although not completed until 1851, the new defense of New York approaches was christened Fort Schuyler in December 1845 in honor of General Philip Schuyler, the American Revolutionary War officer whose able command of the northern army in 1777 laid the groundwork for the defeat of the British at Saratoga. The fort was not completely garrisoned, however, until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1863. " (Hamilton, Harlan. Throgs Neck Light. 3)

"The fort was built in an irregular pentagon design which is still considered one of the finest examples of Napoleonic military architecture in existence; the Pentagon in our nation's capital is modeled after it. It was unusual in that it was erected over a sandy foundation with little solid rock underneath, but it never settled or sagged. The armament for it was formidable: three hundred and twelve seacoast and garrison guns, six field pieces, and one hundred and thirty-four other heavy guns, all to be manned by a garrison of twelve hundred men. The design also provided for a complete three hundred and sixty degree defensive pattern, thus eliminating the possibility of land attack. During the years, muzzle loading cannons gave way to rifled cannons which in turn were replaced by "disappearing" twelve inch guns. There was even a "torpedo" launching