Castle Clinton National Monument
New York City, New York County, New York, USA
Castle Clinton National Monument
National Park Service visitors guide
© 1959
Castle Clinton National Monument
United States Department Of The Interior
Fred A. Seaton, Secretary
National Park Service, Conrad L. Wirth, Director
A harbor fortification, a famous place of entertainment, the
greatest of nineteenth century immigration receiving depots,
and lastly, a fine aquarium, this area symbolizes a century
and a half of American growth and change.
Castle Clinton National Monument is both a link with America's
colonial past and a symbol of a growing new nation. As the
last of the series of forts which, from 1626, successively
guarded the lower end of Manhattan Island, it played an
important part in the early history of our greatest commercial
city. As Castle Garden, theater, and immigrant depot, it
symbolizes phases of development of a nation rising to greatness.
Millions of Americans remember it as the fabulous New York City
Aquarium.
EARLY BACKGROUND
Castle Clinton was born of the tensions of the Napoleonic era.
Some 2 years after the renewal of the conflict between France
and Great Britain in 1803, a sharp reversal of English policy
caused the seizure of more American shipping and the impressment
of more American seamen into the British navy. For Great Britain,
fighting slow strangulation of its commerce, desperate measures
were necessary; the policy of mild toleration with respect to
neutral commerce, which was practiced prior to 1805, could no
longer be afforded. The troubled months that followed were
climaxed, on June 22, 1807, by the firing upon the American
frigate Chesapeake.
Now, for the first time, the American people learned the feeling
of a true national emotion. In New York, mass meetings denounced
the outrageous attack. At the same time, a great "fortification
fever" swept the city, for New York - save for Fort Columbus on
Governors Island - was virtually defenseless. It had been, indeed,
since the destruction, in 1790, of the old Dutch-English fort on
the site of today's Custom House.
Four new fortifications resulted. One of these was three-tiered
Castle Williams on Governors Island - in use today. Opposite,
some 200 feet off the southwest point of Manhattan Island, the
West Battery was built - the fort that in 1815 would be named
for DeWitt Clinton. It was the lineal descendant of a waterside
battery that had protected New York as early as 1689. The other
forts were Fort Wood on Bedloe's Island and Fort Gibson on Ellis
Island.
Generally circular in shape, the West Battery was designed for
28 guns in one tier of casemates. Its 8-foot-thick walls of red
sandstone stood upon a massive foundation of rough stone originally
designed to support a multi-tier "tower" fort similar to Castle
Williams. That foundation had been built up within an encompassing
polygon of stone blocks in some 35 feet of water. A timber causeway
with drawbridge connected the new fort to the New York City Battery
of that day. Fronting upon the causeway was the magnificent sally
port of the West Battery at the center of the gorge, or rear wall.
Inside the rounded ends of that wall were the fort magazines.
Quarters for the officers were at each side of the sally port
passageway. There were no barracks for the enlisted garrison.
Completed in the fall of 1811, the West Battery fired its
"32-pounders" in salute for the first time on Evacuation Day,
November 25, the 28th anniversary of the departure of the British
from New York at the close of the American Revolution.
CASTLE CLINTON, 1812-23
During the War of 1812, the West Battery was an important part
of the defenses of New York City. Those defenses were never
tried, however; the West Battery's guns had to fire at nothing
more dangerous than a harmless hulk moored in the river for
target practice. Still the forts were always ready. Perhaps as
a result, New York City did not share Washington's fate.
For part of the war period, the West Battery may have served
as headquarters for the defenses of New York City and vicinity.
The war over, it became (as Castle Clinton) headquarters for the
Third Military District (New York below the Highlands, and part
of New Jersey); for a time, it was headquarters for another
district as well. The first general to command from the fort
was Alexander Macomb. In 1816, he was succeeded by Maj. Gen.
Winfield Scott, who commanded the entire army when Fort Sumter
was fired upon 45 years later. He soon decided that Castle
Clinton had outlived its military usefulness and, in 1821, he
moved the district headquarters to Governors Island. Two years
later, the Castle was ceded to the city of New York.
THE FORT BECOMES CASTLE GARDEN
In June 1824, Castle Clinton was leased by the city as a place
of public entertainment. Opened as Castle Garden on July 3, it
soon became one of the favored "places of resort" in the city.
The interior of the fort became a "fanciful garden, tastefully
ornamented with shrubs and flowers"; in time, a wonderful
fountain was installed. This was the setting for band concerts,
fireworks extravaganzas, an occasional balloon ascension, and
demonstrations of the latest "scientific marvels," among them
the telegraph demonstrated by Morse in 1842. The gun rooms,
decorated with marble busts and a panoramic view painted by
"celebrated artists," became a promenade and, from boxes for
eight, a place to watch the show. A more popular promenade was
the top of the Castle wall, where awning covered a 14-foot-wide
walkway. The officers' quarters became a "saloon" where choice
liquors, confections, and ices could be had.
From the start Castle Garden seemed marked for extraordinary
events. Within a month after its opening, the Marquis de
Lafayette landed there at the start of a triumphal tour of
America. Two months later, some 6,000 of the citizenry crowded
the Garden for a reception in the General's honor. Castle Garden,
covered with a vast awning for the occasion, was magically
transformed. It was "the most magnificent fete given under cover
in the world," said the Evening Post.
In 1833, Andrew Jackson was honored at the Garden; in 1840, Vice
President Richard M. Johnson, hero of the Battle of the Thames;
in 1843, President Tyler; in 1847, President Polk; in 1848, Henry
Clay; and, in 1851, the great Hungarian patriot, Louis Kossuth.
OPERA AND JENNY LIND
Meanwhile, by 1845, Castle Garden had become something more than
a scene of band concerts, fireworks, and promenades. Altered and
enlarged during the previous winter, "enclosed with a spacious
dome exquisitely painted," the Garden, for the first time,
presented opera (in concert form). The 1845 season opened with
Semiramide and The Barber of Seville. Rossini's harmonies now had
"scope for unfolding themselves ... without breaking their necks
against the walls," said the Tribune. But entertainment of a
lighter sort continued to be offered on many occasions, and the
Garden cellars continued to be filled "with the most delicious
fluids so that the audience may be at once regaled with the
choicest Italian music, and the most inspiring mint juleps."
Then, on September 11, 1850, Castle Garden witnessed the musical
event of the century when P.T. Barnum presented the "Swedish
Nightingale," Jenny Lind, in her American debut. More than 6,000
paid at least $3 a seat to hear - and see - her. Many of these
paid much more than that in an auction to determine choice of
place; a hatter paid $225 for a seat against the center post of
the Garden. And the most ardent hopes were realized. At the close,
the audience broke into a "tempest of cheers."
EMIGRANT LANDING DEPOT
On August 3,1855, Castle Garden, under lease to the New York
State Commissioners of Emigration, opened as an Emigrant Landing
Depot. Made a part of the "mainland" within the months just past,
the Castle was now enclosed on its landward side with some thousand
feet of board fence.
It was the floodtide of the great midcentury migration from
Europe, the Irish and the Germans in the van. Regulation by
the Federal Government was virtually nonexistent. Within Castle
Garden, for the first time, bewildered immigrants were
comparatively protected from the rapacious "runners," cheats,
and sharpers who roamed the open wharves at will. Here, generally
reliable information could be obtained as to boardinghouses,
travel routes, and fares; needed medical attention was provided;
better opportunity for fair exchange of currency was to be found,
as well as the chance to get a job.
More than seven million immigrants passed through the Garden -
two out of every three emigrating to the United States in this
period. In the years following the Civil War, the Irishman with
blackthorn shillalah gave precedence to the German in long blue
coat and flat military cap. After 1882, emigrants from eastern
and southern Europe gradually increased. More buildings were
erected outside the Garden; brick wall replaced wooden fence.
Then, on April 18,1890, Castle Garden received its last immigrants.
With control shifted to the U.S. Superintendent of Immigration, the
Barge Office became a temporary landing depot, pending the opening
of the newer, more commodious center on Ellis Island, on January
1, 1892.
NEW YORK CITY AQUARIUM
Castle Garden, once again altered, became the fabulous New York
City Aquarium. Some 30,000 people visited the Aquarium on opening
day, December 10, 1896. In the years that followed there were
millions of visitors, until 1941 when the Aquarium was closed.
Presumably, the building was to be torn down to make way for the
Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel approaches.
THE NATIONAL MONUMENT
Because of the efforts of determined New Yorkers, the historic
structure was not destroyed, and, on August 12, 1946, the
establishment of Castle Clinton as a national monument was
authorized by act of Congress. Destruction of the Aquarium was
stopped short of the original fort walls. In October 1950 the
work of restoration began.
HOW TO REACH THE MONUMENT
Castle Clinton National Monument is on the New York City Battery
and it can be reached conveniently by subway. It is a short walk
from any of the following stations: Rector Street or South Ferry
on the Seventh Avenue line; Bowling Green or South Ferry on the
Lexington Avenue line.
ADMINISTRATION
Castle Clinton National Monument is under the administration of
the National Park Service, United States Department of the
Interior. In immediate charge of the monument is the superintendent
of Statue of Liberty National Monument, and communications should
be addressed to him at Liberty Island, New York 4, N.Y.
The National Park System, of which this area is a unit, is
dedicated to conserving the scenic, scientific, and historic
heritage of the United States for the benefit and enjoyment
of its people.
Reprint 1959
U.S. Government Printing Office: 1959 OF-514971
E-mail: dwagner2@isd.net
©2006 DJW
Last Modified:
August 12, 2006