"Life in Brooklyn by Margie Bang" Brooklyn by MissyWQ

Brooklyn Travel Guide: 346 reviews and 697 photos

My home in foreground in front of church - Brooklyn
My home in foreground in front of church
Living on Fort Hamilton 1962-1963

This is the beautiful Verrazano Bridge between Staten Island and Brooklyn, New York.

It was finished in 1964 and is 60 ft. longer than the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge. It cost $7.ºº for a round-trip ticket to cross it (at least that's what it was in 2005.)

Foreground is the U. S. Army Post: Fort Hamilton.
We lived there from Feb. 1962 to Nov. 1963 with 4 sons ages 2, 3, 4, and 6.

If you notice the Interdenominational Chapel for the Army Chaplain School, our small "1,000 sq. ft. townhouse" was the 2nd of I think 8, directly across from the Chapel or in the middle of three North and South buildings.

The two large homes were for the generals.
The red three story buildings on the right were the Bachelor Officer Quarters. In front of those is the Officer's Club where we had our Wedding reception in 1954 with a sun setting over the Hudson River.

Ft. Hamilton - Brooklyn, N.Y.
Verrazano Bridge completed 1964 - Brooklyn

Verrazano Bridge completed 1964

Fort Hamilton is among the oldest and most historic installations of the U.S. Army. This fort once part of a series of installations protecting New York Harbor is now the Army's primary presence in New York City's metropolitan area. The Italian explorer Verrazano visited in 1524. The Dutch settled the area around 1650 and in 1664, England seized the colony. Fort Hamilton established after the American Revolutionary War gave birth to the United States. It now serves large retired and reserve communities and headquarters one of the busiest of the Army's recruiting battalions.

Construction began on Fort Hamilton in 1825 on land of strategic importance. The English seized the north bank of the constricted entrance to New York's inner harbor in 1664 as part of its takeover of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam.

More than a century later, July 4, 1776, a small patriot battery initiated the first coastal defense of the rebelling colonies by firing on the invading British fleet, inflicting damages and casualties before being silenced in a gunfire exchange with the warship HMS Asia. Soon, the cause of freedom suffered a setback in the Battle of Long Island, which began partly on the site of present-day Fort Hamilton. A successful rearguard action saved the Continental Army from annihilation. During the war, British guns manned by a Hessian garrison helped keep the harbor and New York City in England's hands during the war.

While no record exists that Fort Hamilton was named after Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the treasury and founder of the national bank, the supposition appears well founded. Hamilton, a New Yorker, fought with the continental army in the battle of Long Island as commander of an artillery company. The 21 year old impressed Gen. George Washington, who made him his aide-de-camp, "to think for me, as well as execute orders." Hamilton's stormy career ended July 12, 1804, when he died of a gunshot wound in a duel with Aaron Burr.

Fort Hamilton's construction in 1825 replaced an earth and timber works known as Fort Lewis. It also augmented Fort Diamond, later Fort Lafayette, which was built on a reef in the Narrows, but that island fortress was removed to construct the Verrazano Bridge across the Narrows, 1959 to 1964.

More History of Ft. Hamilton

In the 30 years it was in service before the Civil War, Fort Hamilton saw duty by two of the Confederate Army's greatest generals. Capt. Robert E. Lee began service as the fort engineer in 1841, waterproofing the fort and upgrading batteries on both sides of the Narrows. And Lt. Thomas Jackson served as an artillery officer at Fort Hamilton after returning from the Mexican War in 1848.

During the Civil War, the Union used Fort Hamilton to train volunteer regiments and to defend the harbor, placing barrier chains and floats across the Narrows and installing there the biggest muzzle-loading cannon ever cast in the United States. Fort Lafayette, the island fortress just offshore, kept Confederate prisoners of war, the most famous being Lee's son, Gen. W.H.F. Lee.

During World War I, Fort Hamilton, now equipped with new breech-loading anti-ship guns, mortars and electric mines, served as a training, embarkation and separation center, a role it again played during World War II. Between the wars it became an infantry center, as a new generation of coastal artillery able to engage ships from greater distances was installed farther away from the city.

During the Korean War, the installation, now under First U.S. Army, which until 1966 was headquartered on Governors Island in New York Harbor, was a staging area for United Nations troops going to fight on the Asian peninsula.

In 1975, Fort Hamilton and its subinstallations (Fort Totten and Belmore) were designated New York Area Command and Fort Hamilton, and came under Fort Dix, N.J. In October 1997, Fort Hamilton joined the U.S. Army Military District of Washington because of the similarity of its mission with that of MDW's.

In August and September of 1776, the Battle of Long Island (also called the Battle of Brooklyn) was fought in Kings County. It was the first major battle in the American Revolutionary War following the Declaration of Independence and the largest battle of the entire conflict. While General George Washington's defeat on the battlefield may have cast early doubts on his abilities as a military tactician and leader, he did keep the Continental Army intact with a brilliant overnight tactical retreat, across the East River, a maneuver seen by historians as one of his greatest practical accomplishments.

Pros and Cons
  • Pros:Nice breeze in the summer.
  • Cons:Bone-chilling cold in the Winter.
  • In a nutshell:Most Brooklynites moved to California or New Jersey in the 1960s.
  • Last visit to Brooklyn: Nov 2005
  • Intro Updated Jul 18, 2010
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Comments (5)

  • Reply
    Oct 26, 2011 at 8:24 AM

    I lived at Ft. Hamilton from Oct.1956 to Aug.1961. I would love to see it again with the bridge. Many fond memories since those were my teenage years! We lived in the quarters facing the Narrows and I could see Coney Island from my bedroom. (NOT the Colonels' quarters.) That's NOT the Hudson River; it's the Narrows...the Hudson begins further north when there is a spit at lower Manhattan. Some day I will visit again and see the differences on "the fort", as it was called at Fort Hamilton High School.

  • Reply
    MissyWQ's Profile Photo
    Dec 9, 2010 at 9:15 PM

    Visited again in July 2010

  • Reply
    mallyak's Profile Photo
    Oct 10, 2009 at 12:43 AM

    Lovely story of your Family life in the vicinity of the Verrazano Bridge ..and your wedding reception with the sun setting over the Hudson river...what can I say!

  • Reply
    barbskie's Profile Photo
    May 7, 2006 at 1:51 PM

    Brooklyn fascinates me,especially the busy streets, tall buildings and the bridge. Nice family story.

  • Reply
    gilabrand's Profile Photo
    Jan 30, 2006 at 12:25 AM

    I remember driving to Brooklyn to visit my grandmother over the Verazano bridge.

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