Surviving buildings associated with its use include test batteries, magazines, and a gun park, as well as bombproof observation structures and target platforms.

The Sandy Hook property also includes an early life saving station built by the United States Life-Saving Service (a predecessor to the United States Coast Guard), and the 1764 Sandy Hook Light, the nation's oldest working lighthouse.

As it overlooks the approaches to New York Harbor, the area has been of military importance since colonial days, and has been home to a succession of defense establishments.

Most of the surviving structures date to the Endicott Period beginning in the 1890s, when the area was formally named Fort Hancock.

Earlier surviving structures include a single bastion from a fort dating to the period of the American Civil War.