Fort Hancock is a former United States Army fort at Sandy Hook in Middletown Township New Jersey. The coastal artillery base defended the Atlantic coast and the entrance to New York Harbor, with its first gun batteries operational in 1896. The fort served from then until 1950 as part of the Harbor Defenses of New York and predecessor organizations. Between 1874 and 1919, the adjacent US Army Sandy Hook Proving Ground was operated in conjunction with Fort Hancock. It is now part of Fort Hancock Memorial Park. It was preceded by the Fort at Sandy Hook, built 1857–1867 and demolished beginning in 1885.The Sandy Hook Light, built in 1764 and the oldest working lighthouse in the United States, is located on the grounds of Fort Hancock.The Sandy Hook area was first fortified as part of the third system of US fortifications. Construction on the Fort at Sandy Hook began in 1857 and ceased in 1867, with the fort serviceable though largely incomplete.This fort was never officially named, but since the area was named Fort Hancock in 1895 it is often called by that name. It was sometimes locally called Fort Lincoln or Fort Hudson. Originally two tower forts were proposed, but a much larger single fort was decided on instead. The initial design of the fort was by then-Captain Robert E. Lee of the Army Corps of Engineers. The fort was designed as a five-bastion irregular pentagon, with two tiers (one casemated, one barbette) of cannon totaling 173 guns on three seacoast fronts, with another 39 guns covering the landward approaches. As was common in Third System forts in the Northeast, it was built primarily of granite. At some point, with the casemate tier of the three seacoast fronts largely complete, the fort was redesigned to speed its overall completion, basically by eliminating the landward bastion and simplifying its neighboring bastions. Following the Civil War, it was determined that masonry forts were vulnerable to rifled guns, and funding for their construction was cut off in 1867. The fort remained incomplete until 1885, when almost all of it was cannibalized to build the Sandy Hook Proving Ground, the new Fort Hancock, and supporting structures such as a seawall. A small portion of one wall remains in place with four cannon ports.In 1874 the Sandy Hook Proving Ground was established as a weapons testing area, primarily for coast defense weapons. This was operated by the Ordnance Department and was organizationally separate from Fort Hancock.In 1890 construction began on the artillery batteries at Fort Hancock, which was named for Major General Winfield Scott Hancock in 1895.These resulted from the large-scale Endicott Program, which in 1885 proposed a new, comprehensive system of forts defending port cities. Fort Hancock was one of the first forts built and prototyped several weapon installations. The first batteries begun at Fort Hancock were Battery Potter and Battery Reynolds (later Reynolds-McCook), initially the "Gun Lift Battery" and the "Sandy Hook Mortar Battery", both of which were built with high walls all around for land defense, a feature not found in most subsequent US installations.Battery Potter was the prototype battery for the steam-hydraulic gun lift carriage.The Endicott Program centered on disappearing guns, which would remain concealed behind a concrete-and-earth parapet until raised to fire. Most of the weapons in the program were mounted on Buffington-Crozier disappearing carriages. However, early on there was doubt that this carriage could successfully raise and lower a 12-inch (305 mm) gun. The alternative developed for this was the gun lift carriage, essentially a barbette carriage mounted on a hydraulic elevator. A steam plant powered the hydraulic system. One advantage of the gun lift carriage not found in most US disappearing gun installations was 360° all-around fire. Battery Potter (known as "Gun Lift Battery No. 1" until named in 1903) received its first gun in 1892 (a 12-inch (305 mm) gun M1888, Watervliet serial no. 11, the first operational gun of the Endicott Program) and was completed in 1894, but for some reason was not accepted for service until 1898, possibly due to extensive testing.The gun lift system proved expensive to build and operate, as the steam plant had to be running continuously to provide pressure for elevator operation. Other early 12-inch gun installations were on simple non-disappearing barbette carriages until the M1896 Buffington-Crozier carriage was developed for the 12-inch gun.Although a few installations such as Battery Torbert at Fort Delaware were begun as gun lift batteries, these were completed with disappearing guns, and Battery Potter was the only gun lift battery completed.
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Google Map- https://goo.gl/maps/V7ZuYPPEsF96SADY6
1933 NJ-35 Ste 262, Wall Township, NJ 07719
Be sure to check out this attraction too!