Another change that has occured to the landscape here also began in the last century. The first canal connecting Chesapeake Bay with the Delaware River was started in the 1820s. The nearly 14 mile long canal was much narrower than it is today. People traveling overland to or from these fortifications would have to cross the canal by boat or raft. In 1919, the Army Corps of Engineers purchased the canal and, in the years that followed, widened and deepened it. Today, a boat or raft is no longer needed to cross the canal; there are several modern bridges. The high steel span that dominates the skyline here is the Reedy Point Bridge, constructed in 1968. More than 10,000 feet long, it is the longest bridge across the Chesapeake and Delaware.

The Twenty-Gun Battery

Near you stand two of the largest fortifications in Fort DuPont State Park. The mound of earth to your right is the Twenty-Gun Battery, built in the 1870’s during the second period of fortification. It incorporated the latest technology of the period: concrete poured over brick supports. The battery could house twenty 15-inch Rodman guns, which had a maximum range of three miles.

Also to your right are Batteries Reed and Gibson. They were built twenty years later during the Spanish-American War of 1898 - 1899, in the third and final period of fortification. The latest technology at this time included concrete poured over a steel frame and generators which powered electric lights and ammunition elevators. Each battery consisted of a cannon with 12-inch muzzle mounted on a “disappearing” carriage and an 8-inch gun mounted on the wall. The disappearing carriage was a major advance. When the gun fired, it would automatically lower itself behind the wall for reloading, then spring up again for the next shot.

The Ammunition Magazine