Overlooking the mouth of the Thames River, Fort Trumbull stands at the southern end of a series of defense-related sites that includes the Naval Submarine Base New London, Fort Griswold, the U.S. Coast Guard Base New London, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, and Electric Boat. Long before Europeans settled here around 1646, members of the Pequot and Mohegan tribes lived along the shores and coastal uplands of the Thames River. Named after Governor Jonathan Trumbull, the fort was completed in 1777 and was attacked and captured during the Revolutionary War by British forces under Benedict Arnold. It was rebuilt multiple times, first in 1812 and again between 1839 and 1852, when the structure visible today was completed. During the Civil War, the fort served as an organizational center for Union troops. The U.S. Revenue Cutter Service Academy was located here in 1910, and after the 1915 merger of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service and the U.S. Life-Saving Service created the U.S. Coast Guard, Fort Trumbull became the site of the first U.S. Coast Guard Academy and remained so until 1932. During World Wars I and II, submarines, destroyers, and seaplanes were moored here. Between 1946 and 1950, the fort served as a satellite campus of the University of Connecticut for many returning soldiers and sailors, and anti-submarine technologies, including sonar, were developed here. In 1946, at the onset of the Cold War, the U.S. Navy Underwater Sound Laboratory was established at Fort Trumbull; later renamed the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, it was relocated to Newport, Rhode Island, in the 1990s. Fort Trumbull State Park opened in 2000.

Photo: Michael Herrick

New London, Connecticut · USA