Louise and I went on a really cool tour recently. When I was young, we went to the beaches of Sandy Hook frequently. I did not realize that many of the extensive military fortifications of the hook are still there. The tour started at 7:30pm and went almost 3 hours, with guides dressed in WW2 attire escorting us through the old batteries and buildings.
Sandy Hook juts out about 5 miles into New York harbor, and has always controlled the harbor, as the main channel into New York goes up the Jersey shore and past the hook. There have been military forts to protect the harbor since the British settled the area. About 20,000 soldiers were stationed there during WW2. After WW2 and into the 1960's ballistic Nike missiles (nuclear?) were based there. Today there is still a coast guard base. But most of the buildings from WW2 are empty, looking like an abandoned city. Today lots of people come to the hook to swim, bike, and fish. It is a beautiful peninsula with a view of New York across the water.
Some of the WW2 guns are still in place. The gun in the picture could accurately target a ship over 15 miles away, and had a barrel about 20 feet long (they had much bigger ones too). In the photo I am looking into the sight, which is targeting a tour boat about a mile off the coast.
It is incredible that so much cool military history is right next to some hugely popular beaches. If you like military things, take the tour.
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ReplyDeleteOver 25 nuclear missiles were at Sandy Hook at one point. It was one of the largest bases; the only one in the area to have the double battery system. The radar area was just about a mile north of the launch site.
ReplyDeleteWhen constructing the beach pavilions and parking lots, the area needed to be checked for UXODs, or unexploded ordinances. As ships coming back from WWII were entering the harbor, they had to under go a time consuming process of taking the weapons off of the ships. Since men wanted to be with their families, this process was bypassed by the ships offloading the munitions into the ocean, which were subsequently dredged by the Army Corps of Engineers and used in Sandy Hook beach replenishment programs. To this day, munitions continue to be found. Furthermore, an area along the beach was used as a proving ground, and shells and cannon would be fired miles down the beach, also accounting for more pieces of weaponry found.
Quick correction: most of the buildings constructed in World War II are all but demolished, save for the Marine Academy of Science and Technology campus, which served as support facilities for the"Tent City" at Fort Hancock early in the water. The abandoned buildings often attributed to Sandy Hook were constructed in 1899 and were used from then until World War II. The buildings got a new lease on life during the Korean crisis as well as the Cold War, until the post was deactivated for the last time in 1974.Some buildings were still used, though not by the army, past this date. Naval laboratories maintained and utilized Battery Peck and other structures as storehouses for neutron generators and other classified, highly sensitive scientific equipment. By the early 1980's, they had left the Hook for good.