Fort Clinton (Central Park)

You are standing on a strategic bluff that once served as a vital lookout point for two separate wars. In seventeen seventy six, British forces occupied this high ground to secure their hold on Manhattan, constructing defensive lines that stretched all the way to the Hudson River. Decades later, during the War of eighteen twelve, American volunteers rebuilt fortifications here to protect the city from a feared British invasion that never actually arrived. This site was named in honor of DeWitt Clinton, who served as the mayor of New York during that period of uncertainty.