[1] Two weeks later, the pair submitted their proposal for the erection of a fort at "Martelaer's Rock" (soon after renamed Constitution Island), just across from West Point, and below the "gate" of the Southern Highlands.
The location and tricky navigability made it an ideal defensive position - at the narrowest and deepest point on the river, with the Highlands rising steeply on both sides of an S-shaped bend.
However, construction difficulties and cost overruns eventually saw the project abandoned in favor of nearby Fort Montgomery (Hudson River), an alternate site also selected by Tappen and Clinton.
A British presence, however, necessitated their removal shortly after their unanimous approval of the United States Declaration of Independence on July 9, 1776, first to White Plains, then to Fishkill and finally to Kingston.
In furtherance of this, Robert Yates (politician) (on behalf of the Committee) on August 13, 1776, wrote to George Washington that "… the Chain intended … is arrived and will form a Quarter part of the one designed for Hudson's River, the Iron for the Remainder is come to Hand, and the Smiths begin this Day to Forge it.
We have agreed to fix One End of it at Fort Montgomery and the other at the Foot of a Mountain called Anthony's Nose — it will cross the River Obliquely, and for that Reason be less exposed to the Force of the Tide, & less liable to Injury from the Ships of the Enemy—the Length of the Chain will at least be 2100 Feet.
Fortunately, Christopher Tappen, then Deputy Ulster County Clerk and member of New York's Council of Safety, had removed, on October 12, the records, administrative papers, ledgers and documents of the county and state governments, including historic Dutch records going back as far as 1658, to the neighboring town of Rochester (a small village near Accord, New York), at the expense of Tappen's own house and personal belongings, destroyed by the British.
In a letter to Alexander Hamilton and William Floyd on March 19, 1783, Tappen forwarded that "the Corporation of Kingston desires to become the seat of the Continental Congress and discusses the advantages it affords as well as the privileges the town is willing to extend".