[2] The first use of the land for military purposes was as the site of a blockhouse built by Dutch settler David Pieterszen de Vries in 1636 on Signal Hill (now the site of Fort Tompkins), which was burned in an Indian raid of the Peach War in 1655.

[3] By 1835 Forts Richmond and Tompkins had deteriorated to the point that they were declared unfit for use, and the next year the federal government began a decade-long process of purchasing them.

[8] Both forts were ready for service, though still incomplete, when the Civil War broke out in April, 1861.

[5] The Fort Tompkins area was important as a mobilization center in the Civil War, and it was further fortified.

In the 1890s new gun batteries were built under the Endicott Program, and Fort Tompkins' role in the area's defense ceased.

[1] In 1979 the Navy acquired the site as part of Naval Station New York, but in 1995 the Navy base was disestablished and the Fort Wadsworth property became part of the Gateway National Recreation Area under the National Park Service.