HISTORY

WESTCHESTER

COUNTY

That a post be also taken in the Highlands, on each side of Hudson's River, and batteries erected in such a manner as will most effectually prevent any vessels passing that may be sent to harass the inhabitants on the borders of said river ; and that experienced persons be immediately sent to examine said river, in order to discover where it will be most advisable and proper to obstruct the navigation.

These resolves, with others, were communicated to the provincial congress of New York, with instructions to keep them secret. That body referred the two matters to separate committees, which in due time reported plans for carrying the recommendations into effect. The result as to Kingsbridge was the construction of three redoubts, one of which (on Tetard's Hill) was called Fort Independence; and the first intrenchments thus established were soon supplemented brothers along the Harlem and Spuyten Duyvil waterway. Fort Washington, on Manhattan Island, overlooking the Hudson at about the foot of 181st Street, was built under the supervision of Colonel Rufus Putnam, of Washington's staff, previously to the British occupation of New York. It was designed to be -- and was, in fact -- the main defensive position guarding New York City below and the open country above; and Fort Washington and the Kingsbridge defenses were closely interdependent. In addition to its function as a citadel at the northern end of Manhattan Island, Fort Washington covered the passage up the Hudson River, to which end Fort Lee, erected about the same time directly opposite on the New Jersey bank, also contributed. The committee having iu charge the matter of advising as to fortifying both banks of the Hudson in the neighborhood of the Highlands and obstructing the river navigation paved the way for equally important undertakings in that quarter.