Fort Wood ca. 1919

The massive fortifications that comprise Fort Wood were built in 1807 to protect New York from foreign invasion. This impressive eleven-pointed fort was renamed Fort Wood in honor of an engineer who died during the Battle of Erie (part of the War of 1812). The Fort had 24 guns and guarded New York's harbor until the 1880s when it became obsolete.

Fort Wood would not be simply demolished and consigned to the history books. Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty, spotted the island and thought Fort Wood would be the perfect base for his monument. The cornerstone of the statue's base was laid in 1884, but the conversion of the Fort into the Statue's pedestal was not finished until April 22, 1886.

With the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty on October 28th, 1886, the Fort Wood had fully been incorporated into the Statue of Liberty.