Fort Jay

Federal period[edit]

In the years following the end of British occupation of New York in 1783, the works deteriorated. A decade later in 1794, the State of New York began to finance improvements to the earthworks, then in ruins. The fort was reconstructed as a square with four corner bastions, and was named after the Federalist New York governor John Jay. By 1797 Congress appropriated $30,117 for continued construction. Eventually, to allow for continued federal funding and upkeep of the works, the state conveyed Governors Island and the works at Fort Jay to the federal government in February 1800 for one dollar.


In 1806 the earthworks were replaced by granite and brick walls and the footprint of the fort enlarged to designs by Major Jonathan Williams, chief engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, superintendent of the United States Military Academy, and supervisor of fortifications in New York Harbor.^[2] The fort was rebuilt and enlarged as part of what became known as the Second System of US seacoast fortifications.^[3] Williams replaced the earthworks with sandstone and granite walls and an arrow-shaped ravelin, all surrounded by a dry moat. The moat was in turn surrounded by a sloped grassy area or glacis that was once was cleared of trees, providing a clear field of fire toward any advancing enemy forces. The slope was also designed to retard or stop cannon shot from warships. The overall result is still evident in the fort's design and its position on the highest point on the island. Construction of the walls and gate of the existing fort were completed in 1808. Later, small wood and brick barracks buildings were constructed in the enclosed square space.


The fortification was initially named Fort Jay for John Jay, a member of the Federalist Party, New York governor, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Secretary of State and one of the Founding Father of the United States. Jay, as George Washington's Secretary of State, negotiated the Jay Treaty of 1794 with Great Britain. With the election of Thomas Jefferson as President in 1800 there was a shift of power from the Federalists, of which Jay was a prominent member, to the Democratic-Republican Party. Jefferson's party objected to the treaty, which resolved outstanding issues from the American Revolution. Following the 1806 rebuilding, and with the change in presidential administrations and the recent transfer to the federal government, the fort was renamed Fort Columbus, presumably for Christopher Columbus.


The post was renamed at some time between December 15, 1806 and July 21, 1807. Edmund Banks Smith, an Episcopal priest, Army chaplain, and author of an early history of Governors Island wrote in 1913 that this was "supposed to have been due to Jay’s temporary unpopularity with the Republican party, which was not satisfied with the Jay Treaty with England". However, this has not been substantiated, and no documentation for the name change has been found. The fort retained the name "Columbus" throughout the rest of the 19th century, finally reverting to Fort Jay in 1904.^[4]


Fort Columbus played an important role in the military life of New York City as the largest army post defending the city. The fortification, in concert with Fort Wood on Liberty Island, Fort Gibson on Ellis Island, Castle Clinton at the Battery in Lower Manhattan, and two other fortifications on Governors Island, South Battery and Castle Williams, provided protection for the city and Upper New York Bay. This system of coastal fortifications is credited with discouraging the British from taking any naval action against the city during the War of 1812, who preferred easier targets in the Great Lakes, the Chesapeake Bay (resulting in the burning of Washington, D.C.), and the Gulf of Mexico below New Orleans.