Satellite view of Castle Clinton

Castle Clinton is a very small fort—you couldn’t even hold a Little League baseball game inside—so if you are on your own, you can walk around the fort and read all of the information in an indoor exhibit room in about a half hour. Rangers are on duty to answer any questions, and they also conduct 20-minute tours of the fort every day at 10 AM, 12 PM, 2 PM, and 3 PM. No reservation is needed, so just look for a crowd gathering around a Ranger and join in. Times can always change, so be sure to get the current schedule on the National Park Service’s official Guided Tours web page for Castle Clinton National Monument.

If you have a group of between 10 and 25 people, reservations are required for a Ranger-guided tour. Call (212) 344-7220 at least two weeks in advance.

Inside Castle Clinton in New York City

INDOOR EXHIBIT ROOM

An exhibit area in one of the rooms along the perimeter of the fort contains a bank of information panels and historical photos that tell the fort’s story as a military installation, opera house and theater, immigration station, and aquarium.

Information exhibits at Castle Clinton National Monument

The most interesting of the exhibits is the progression of dioramas that depict the fort’s start on an island just 200 feet off the shore of Manhattan Island to its eventual connection to Manhattan by landfill. Also pay attention to the fort itself. The roof changes as the building was converted into a theater and then an aquarium.

Castle Clinton in 1812

Castle Clinton in 1880s

Castle Clinton in the 1941

In addition to the exhibits is a collection of sea creature shells found in New York Harbor.

Sea creature exhibit at Castle Clinton National Monument

OUTDOOR EXHIBITS

When operating as a military installation, Castle Clinton—which was originally called Southwest Battery—was outfitted with twenty-eight 32-pounder cannon (pounder refers to the weight of the cannonball that could be shot). None were ever fired in battle. On display in one of the casemates (fortified room for artillery) is a cannon aiming out over the harbor through an embrasure (an opening in a fortified wall). Though the cannon is authentic and of the time period, it is not original to the fort.

Cannon exhibit at Castle Clinton National Monument

Embrasures in the walls of Castle Clinton

Also on display is one of four sections of a wall discovered between 2005 and 2006 during an excavation of the South Ferry at the Battery (it is not part of Castle Clinton). The wall is thought to date between 1730 and 1766 and is most likely part of the original defensive wall around lower Manhattan Island, otherwise known as the Battery. The four sections were found at the northeast edge of Battery Park near to where the high-rise buildings begin along State Street. Remember, Battery Park (where Castle Clinton is located) is all landfill, so it didn’t even exist at this time. The wall marked the shoreline of the original Manhattan Island.

Section of wall thought to be from Manhattan’s original defensive battery on display at Castle Clinton National Monument

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