Two hundred years ago this week, on May 10, 1816, the construction of Fort Armstrong began on the west side of what is now Arsenal Island.
The Special Collection Center’s archival materials collection includes an early depiction of the fort: an engraving from Charles A. Dana’s The United States Illustrated (New York: Hermann J. Meyer, [1853?]).
And our photograph collection includes an image of the blockhouse built in 1916 for the centennial of the fort’s construction:
