Sandy Hook was fortified to defend New York Harbor for more than two centuries, beginning with British Loyalists occupying the Sandy Hook Lighthouse during the American Revolution and American troops constructing a wooden palisade fort during the War of 1812. By the 1890s, concrete gun batteries were built to defend against long-range naval cannon. These batteries were continually improved and remained operational through World War II. Nike missiles placed here in the 1950s were the final descendants of the coastal defenses built on Sandy Hook.