SUNY Maritime College - Eight Bells Yearbook (Bronx, NY)

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General Macljougal Hospital 1 PUR T SCH U YLER 1860's liusputa ,ge r Q-K , I 1milW' ld E Iwuse

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' 9. ..'.' ' A 1 unnel Under L. I. 1-ve me Vnscovgrzev A MQ, . Q .5555 ..tt.oNe,lst.An-gf JI, - .QW oun . SOUND- S' - -x -P 1-' . .- ,-.Q-qt. T75- '7'.', - -eff-f--imzf 'ffflffig Fort Totten Passa gewa y Ma--, w 5 . . I F D . ,A-. an Dzscovered . . . A gam! T , . jf fi-f?1v Q -7 A-51.4 F- it ,111-.1 ' Q 1 7g...1,'- ..zg+',7gn','1 g 23? :eg BY AMY POWELL gn -fav: -. -fn,.f1t'-,211 or 1 ' 'P B557 S773 a -544' ' 'iif:i-ff - P53 - ' bf ' fin .,.d7f..5:6 ?1 I-ii . . . . . n -' ' ti?-,2 -ts. The sergeant-manor he showed hns gnrl frnend - 22317 ,Q ' 3:45251 .ir--51 - xf..-' - - - - - '.7'.1,-'lF! f'?:'r f'.if- Tl P swore nt was true when the tunnel . . . and both 16. 'ici if-rl . . ' .. Em--,A , ,- -- . 1:.f31g - he announced he had of them stnll remember nt. , j fs '2 ' ':,gij5Q,n..,.5 1 discovered a tunnel Another Queens man . .. . 517 ': '4:'3vJ,'s.Lg.7j,'. 3. 9-.-j,-,,41Qzq,.'1m'-q ' -,iff '. ' A331 ' q.f :.Z,'QL under Long Island sand that when he was ff T' - . 'Jae n. t ' nf 14 .1 4 .111 --n,g'tI'5!n5 Sound. chnef bugler at the fort, v--c---ffl'-rf5'-if--'li-jg 5-1 '--3.-Q .gf..5g5,33g,?g It was a secret pas- the tunnel was used for 'X r f-335' ,,,,, sageway, he sand, run- bugle practice. Its . '3gjQw----:.',, --L-,' , -..3'3.2, Ham' . . . ,'n'Z,N ' ' Q''1f.g:-gg'-.f?7f:'i'f1219 341- ff'-I I' '. ' h Q ,'-.-,rf-ff: T nnng from Fort Totten nn depths, he sand, 'Af gf 'JUTTQ , g Bayside to Fort Schuyler drowned out the noises. - 4 I s-TZ' .4 in the Bronx and that it There is a land tunnel was big enough to ride a at the Wnnnefs Point fort Certainly Useless now, practice. It took its fnrst horse through. . . if you're careful at the cor- hers. lt was the city's first vehicular tunnel, he con- tinued, built around 1862 by Civil War sol- diers working on the old fortress at Totten. Since his discovery back in 1937, the tunnel is rediscovered every few years and revives some lively discussion. WHEN OUESTIONED yesterday about it, Col. Stanley F. Griswold, deputy post commander at the fort, said: lf there is such a tun- nel, it must be a top drawer secret. l don't know a thing about it. But, if l do discover one, l'll let you know immedi- ately. Most of the colonel's predecessors have described the tunnel story as the oldest and most persistent rumor that ever hung over the fort. But with each redis- covery of the Civil War relic, new evidence crops up. NOT LONG AGO, an enlisted man from Flush- ing reported that when he was stationed at Tot- ten during World War I, and it runs under the knoll between the bar- racks andthe old for- tress at the waterfront. It was built so that the .trip back and forth between the two places could be made under cover . . . and out of sight of the enemy. . The fortress end of the tunnel is damp and water-smelling and it was from there that the under-water passage was supposed to lead to Fort Schuyler. 'BOTH FORTS were originally designed to control the inside water approach to the city. Sit- uated at the narrowest part of the Sound, fire from the guns of both could easily have raked the stretch of water bew- teen them. The war ended before the Oueens fortress was finished. No guns were ever mounted there. No Confederate battleship ever sailed between its iron-shuttered portholes and those of its sister fort across the water. The two probably would have been effec- tive in protecting New York from an enemy attack from the Sound in 1865 . . . but they are Four good rounds from enemy ships 40 miles away would surely finish them today. BEFORE 1857, Willets Point was owned by the Willet family and was used as a farm and sum- mer residence. Charles, who gave the point its name as well as that of the highway that leads into the fort itself, is bur- ied just inside the walls. He is said to be the only civilian interred inside a military fortress. Totten was named in honor of Brigadier Gen- eral Joseph G. Totten, an officer in the Engi- neers, who was killed during the battle for Vera Cruz in the war with Mexico. After the Civil War, the fort became the site of Grant General Hospital and assigned there dur- ing that period was Major Walter Reed . . . one of the discoverers of yellow fever and after whom the Washington Army hospital is named. At a later date, Briga- dier General H. S. Abbott, who com- manded the fort, devel- oped a seacoast search- light used in the first illu- mnnated night target test in 1872 and func- tioned perfectly. DURING the 1880s, experiments with the Sims fish torpedo were conducted there. Propelled by electric- ity, the long black torpe- does raced through the water at the incredible speed of ten miles an hour . . . playing havoc with the morale of the local fishermen. Fort Totten's designer was Captain Robert E. Lee, who was later to command the Confeder- ate Armies in the Civil War. But the history books are silent on whether Lee's plans called for a tunnel. Maybe there is a good reason for it. After all, the tunnel was a wartime secret. And the tunnel was a logical answer to the problem of getting men across the Sound. It might even be there . . . and like the ser- geant-major said . . . you can crawl 500 feet through it if you know the entrance.

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,I By 1861, the fort, which had been named after General Philip Schuyler, who in 1777 paved the way for the defeat ot Gentlemen Johnny Burgoyne, was garri- soned by engineers who sur- vived and surveyed until 1865 when it was turned over to artil- lerymen. Later, during the Civil War, it was converted to the McDougall General Hospital which was soon afterward destroyed by fire. I -v ii Tank l-louse and Old Windmill Officers Quarters