Battery Commander’s Station

After the two 5-inch guns were removed in 1917, an observation station was built over one of the original gun emplacements for Battery Arnold. Made of reinforced concrete at a cost of $850.00, it was partially concealed by the parapet wall, with power supplied from the power plant and data transmitted by telephone. When Fort Mott was functional, technologies such as radar and aerial reconnaissance did not exist, so observation stations like this one and its counterpart at Battery Gregg were the only means of observing the movements of enemy vessels. The coordinates of a vessel were constantly relayed from the observation stations to the plotting rooms, where mathematical calculations were made so the large guns could be accurately aimed before firing. Because an enemy vessel might be within the firing range of all three forts but visible to only one at a given time, the observation stations at the forts provided a system network.

New Jersey · United States