Military
4
The army operated its first and only lift gun battery here from 1893 to 1906. Inside its cavernous galleries, two 12-inch guns could be raised to the surface for firing and lowered for loading and servicing. Concealed and protected from enemy fire, Potter’s rifled artillery could hammer battleships eight miles away. Giant boilers built up steam to power the guns’ hydraulic lifts. Half-ton projectiles brought from the magazine by rail cart were hoisted to the second-floor loading area, and the elevators raised the guns through holes in the roof to the firing position. The full cycle of loading, ascending, firing, and descending averaged more than six minutes, far slower than the 30-second firing style of the disappearing guns installed in 1907 at nearby Battery Granger.
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New Jersey · United States
