Nighttime At The Fort

Fort Totten is a dilapidated Civil War-era fort on the north shore of New York City’s borough of Queens. The surrounding area was, for many years, military property but is now mostly hilly parkland. The City gives occasional tours, including one at night just before Halloween. There are real bats there!

Urban legend says that there was a secret tunnel under the East River that joined Fort Totten to Fort Schuyler directly across the river in the Bronx.  The park ranger guiding our tour insisted that it was untrue but I’m not so sure. Let’s see: General Robert E. Lee planned the fort in 1857 and construction began in 1862. Subway tunnels were dug beneath the East and Hudson rivers starting in the early 1900s and are still in use today. The famous Brooklyn Bridge opened in 1883. So while it’s unlikely that  tunnels joined the forts, it seems technologically possible. And those tunnels would make a great Halloween walk at nighttime.