Fort Totten Park takes its name from the Civil War era fortress on the property, originally referred to by its location on Willets Point and officially named for General Joseph Totten following his demise in the Battle of the Wilderness in Virginia. Although it is believed Robert E. Lee prepared the fort’s plans in 1857, construction did not begin until 1862. Built at the mouth of the Long Island Sound across from Fort Schuyler, Fort Totten created a pinch point intended to protect the eastern approach to New York harbor. Rapid advances in artillery during the Civil War soon made it obsolete as a defensive structure, and it then served primarily for casualty support and hospital care. From 1865 to 1901 it housed the Engineer School of Application. In the twentieth century it housed the Eastern Artillery District Headquarters, the Electric Mines and Army School of Submarine Defense, a prototype anti-aircraft installation, and the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Headquarters. During the Cold War, Fort Totten was 1st Region ARADCOM for the Nike Missile Defense System, and since 1969 it has been home to the 77th RRC of the U.S. Army Reserves. After two decades of community lobbying for a new Bayside area park, the Department of Defense gave New York City Parks and Recreation a ten-acre parcel in 1987. In 2002 the New York City Fire Department, which had operated training facilities there since the 1980s, received a 39.2-acre parcel from the U.S. Department of Education. Two years later, the National Park Service, through two Public Benefit Conveyance Grant Programs, gave Parks and Recreation an additional 49.5 acres of land, including open space with the historic battery and historic buildings. On May 30, 2005, Parks and Recreation officially opened Fort Totten Park as a public facility for the people of New York City.