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The structure of Fort Wood on Liberty Island in New York City, United States, was used for the foundation of the Statue of Liberty. In the nineteenth century, with the development of more powerful artillery and explosive shells, star forts were replaced by simpler but more robust polygonal forts. In the twentieth century, with the development ...
A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin fortis ("strong") and facere ("to make"). [1] Castillo San Felipe del Morro, Puerto Rico.
Defences of a given harbor were initially designated artillery districts, redesignated as coast defense commands in 1913 and as harbor defense commands in 1924. In 1901 the Artillery Corps was divided into field artillery and coast artillery units, and in 1907 the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps was created to operate these defences. [16]
Coastal artillery is the branch of the armed forces concerned with operating anti-ship artillery or fixed gun batteries in coastal fortifications. [1] In modern times, coastal artillery has generally been replaced with anti-ship missiles , such as the Ukrainian R-360 Neptune .
When the United States gained independence in 1783, the seacoast defense fortifications were in poor condition. Concerned by the outbreak of war in Europe in 1793, the Congress created a combined unit of "Artillerists and Engineers" to design, build, and garrison forts in 1794, appointed a committee to study coast defense needs, and appropriated money to construct a number of fortifications ...
Compared with the medieval fortified towers they replaced, bastion fortifications offered a greater degree of passive resistance and more scope for ranged defence in the age of gunpowder artillery. As military architecture, the bastion is one element in the style of fortification dominant from the mid 16th to mid 19th centuries.
Elements of a rampart in an artillery fortification from the 16th to 19th centuries included: Exterior slope: the front face of the rampart, often faced with stone or brick. Interior slope: the back of the rampart on the inside of the fortification; sometimes retained with a masonry wall but usually a grassy slope.
Embrasures for artillery casemates in the flank of a bastion at the 17th-century Citadel of Arras. In fortifications designed to resist artillery, a casemate was originally a vaulted chamber usually constructed underneath the rampart. It was intended to be impenetrable and could be used for sheltering troops or stores.