Subterranean New York - Fort Totten Tunnels

Subterranean New York – The subterranean tunnel between Fort Totten, Queens, New York and Fort Schuyler, Bronx, New York has been a mystery for years. Historians, park rangers and common sense imply it is a myth. The knowledge and skill needed to build a tunnel under more than 100 feet of water, simply wasn’t present at the time, they maintain. Conjecture has been fueled by provoking clues - including dead-ending corridors and walled-up chambers in both forts. The lasting tale prompted the History Channel to run a segment on it recently.

Parts of Fort Totten are still utilized by the Department of the Army and the Coast Guard. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation offer tours of the old fort including the dead end corridors. Fort Schuyler houses the Marine Transportation Department and the State University of New York Maritime College. When David Allen is not teaching history at SUNY Maritime College, housed in Fort Schuyler, he enjoys exploring the Throgs Neck fort's complex labyrinth of subterranean tunnels. Months ago, he discovered a channel that appears to go beneath the bay headed directly for Fort Totten. According to the NY Daily News article, SUNY Maritime Provost Joseph Hoffman saw a round, 4-foot-wide exit to what he believes was the tunnel about four years ago at the sea wall near the Fort Schuyler. After searching the area on a boat at low tide with the reporter, Allen could not find spot. The water level has risen since Allen first searched the area. It’s possible the exit is still under water even at low tide.

Fort Totten, Cross Island Parkway, Totten Road to 15 Road was originally planned as a by General Robert E. Lee four years before he went south and his state seceded from the Union according to the NYC Parks and Recreation Department. Plans were at first prepared by Captain Robert E. Lee in 1857, and construction of the fortification began in 1862. From 1820 – 1860 the fort was part of third system of fortifications. By the 1830's, construction started on the Third System. The latest masonry fortification concepts were employed. The chief American fortress engineer was Colonel Joseph Totten. His main modernization was the Totten casemate. In the Totten design, the cannon rotated about the narrowest part of the embrasure, allowing both a smaller embrasure and a wider field of fire than prior designs. The designed called for many guns concentrated in tall thick masonry walls, with layers of low, protected-masonry walls.

Across the East River in The Bronx is Fort Schuyler. Between the Civil War and World War I, the battery at Fort Totten was used, along with Fort Schuyler, Bronx, to protect the entrance to the East River. Fort Schuyler was one of many forts built along the east coast of the United States in the aftermath of the War of 1812 as part of the seacoast defense system. It became very apparent at that time that the United States coastline was poorly defended against foreign invasion. Fort Schuyler is located on Throgs Neck on the southeastern tip of the Bronx at a point where the East River meets Long Island Sound. Fort Totten faces it on the other side of the river in Queens.

In 1870 tunnels were constructed at Fort Totten from the torpedo magazines to the Water Battery. In 1885 US President Grover Cleveland appointed a joint military and civilian board, headed by Secretary of War William Crowninshield Endicott, named the Board of Fortifications. This was known as the Endicott period. Many new weapon structures were quickly developed. One such system was a controlled minefield system for harbor approaches. The mines were controlled detonated from observation towers at Fort Schuyler. In 1898 mine fields were a serious part of the defense, and smaller guns were also employed to protect the mine fields from minesweeping vessels at Fort Totten. The advantage of command detonation was that no gaps were required for passage of friendly shipping. According to a former student of the State University of New York Maritime College, tunnels were trenched at the sea wall to route the cables for the minefield from Fort Schuyler. The tunnels were only there to protect the cable and stopped at the sea wall. According to the individual, he found references that the entrances to the tunnel were closed when the University took over the Fort. The same type of mine system was employed at Fort Totten, but the “tunnel system” did not meet nor connect the two forts.

So do you believe there are secret tunnels connecting Fort Totten with Fort Schuyler?

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2009/02/28/2009-02-28_historians_hunt_for_civil_warera_passage.html

http://www.forttottenparks.org/newsletter_pages/fall09.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seacoast_Defense_(US)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endicott_Board

http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/forttotten

http://www.cdsg.org/mapspdf/HDEY1921.pdf

http://www.sunymaritime.edu/