It was declared a U.S. military reservation by U.S. Secretary of War Elihu Root, expropriating the land owned by Captain Juan Gonzales without compensation.

[citation needed] This expropriation was later challenged by then-President Ferdinand Marcos and the United States (US) agreed to compensate, through him, in trust deposits.

[citation needed] On March 18, 1926, U.S. Army Lieutenant John Sewell Thompson was executed by hanging at Fort McKinley for murdering his fiancée, 16-year-old Audrey Burleigh.

Among the prisoners held there were some of the country's leading academics, creative writers, journalists, and historians including Butch Dalisay, Ricky Lee, Bienvenido Lumbera, Jo Ann Maglipon, Ninotchka Rosca, Zeus Salazar, and William Henry Scott.

[6] The YRC was a higher security prison that housed detainees that included prominent society figures and media personalities, supposed members of the Communist Party of the Philippines, and some known criminals.

While the idea was to be located south of Manila, on a 5,000-hectare (12,000-acre) area, a river should traverse the city; proximity to the sea or lake would be desirable; travel time to the nearest airport to have more than 60 minutes; this will also avoid any major fault line, having no buildings and rise high enough to reach 600 feet (180 m), which would make the city green; and a national park would feature a network of smaller parks, gardens, and malls.

The FBDC's landmark project was conceived as Bonifacio Global City, a real estate development area meant to accommodate 250,000 residents and 500,000 daytime workers and visitors.

The project was hampered by the 1997 Asian financial crisis, but moved forward when Ayala Land and Evergreen Holdings, Inc. of the Campos(Yao) Group purchased Metro Pacific's controlling stake in FBDC in 2003.