It houses a museum, the Stephen B. Luce Library, and the Marine Transportation Department and Administrative offices of the State University of New York Maritime College.

It is located on Throggs Neck, the southeastern tip of the Bronx, where the East River meets Long Island Sound.

Fort Totten, built during the Civil War and largely incomplete, faces it on the opposite side of the river.

Their interlocking batteries created a bottleneck of defenses against ships attempting to approach New York City.

Its position on Throggs Neck allowed four of its five sides to cover the water approach to New York City.

Relatively small "tower bastions" of a type developed by US Army engineer Joseph G. Totten were at the three points where the seacoast fronts met.

Each of these had twelve flank howitzers to protect the curtain walls of the fronts against assault, along with three heavy seacoast guns.

Behind the fort were an extensive hornwork (unique in the third system) and an advanced redoubt (later demolished) to defend against a land attack.

The hornwork had two demi-bastions protecting its face against a direct assault, along with a large ravelin extending northwest along the peninsula to break up an attack.

[10][11] Duty at the fort was reported to be a dull assignment as the men took the roles of guards and hospital stewards, not artillerymen.

The site was transferred to the state of New York in 1934 during the Great Depression, then rehabilitated by the Works Progress Administration and dedicated to the school in 1938.