History
The Battery, a twenty-five-acre park at Manhattan’s southern tip, has long served as both a defensive edge and a public gateway to New York Harbor. Its name comes from seventeenth-century artillery batteries, though the site was first used by the Lenape and later anchored by nearby Dutch and English forts. It figured in the Revolutionary War and later in Evacuation Day celebrations. Castle Clinton, built in 1808–1811 as the West Battery, became successively a theater, immigration and customs center, and aquarium. Expanded by landfill and repeatedly altered by transportation projects, the park was restored after decades of decline and remains a major historic and civic waterfront.
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New York, New York · United States
