United States Military Academy at West Point, NY

A 1780 map of the fortifications at West Point, including the Great Chain. Interestingly, the writing is in French.

United States Military Academy at West Point
West Point, NY

Having established control over New York City at the onset of the Revolutionary War, the British were in position to sever the thirteen colonies in two. Given the vast British superiority in naval power, they simply needed to extend control up the length of the Hudson River in order to disconnect rebellious New England from the remainder of the colonies. In order to prevent this, a line of defense needed to be established north of New York City, and the geographically strategic location of West Point was chosen.

The Lower Hudson River is in fact an estuary, subject to significant tidal currents which make navigation by sailing vessels particularly difficult. At West Point the Hudson River narrows and forms an “S-Curve”, and large ships were forced to slow down in order to pass through, a fact which made them easier targets for artillery batteries. In 1778 the famous Great Chain was stretched across the east-west channel at the center of the S-Curve, in order to completely obstruct the progress of any ship attempting to sail upstream. Cannons were placed in forts and batteries on both sides of the river to destroy ships as they approached the blockade.

The British never tested this obstacle, which means that it was a complete success.

At the close of the 18th century, poor American performance in land battles with indigenous tribes and naval skirmishes with the French convinced the Federal Government of the need for a national military academy, and in 1802 President Jefferson called for and signed legislation establishing a “Corps of Engineers” at West Point. The academy did not begin to succeed as an institution until 1817, when Colonel Sylvanus Thayer became the Superintendent. He upgraded academic standards, instilled military discipline, emphasized honorable conduct, and made civil engineering the foundation of the curriculum. For the next few decades, West Point graduates were largely responsible for the construction of the bulk of the nation’s initial railway lines, bridges, harbors and roads. The Corps of Cadets thrived during Thayer’s tenure and West Point became the nation’s predominate source of commissioning officers.

In today’s Corps of Cadets approximately 1,300 enter the Academy each spring with about 1,000 cadets graduating. A cadet’s class rank, which determines his army branch and assignment upon graduation, is calculated as a combination of academic performance, military leadership performance, and physical fitness and athletic performance. Although a variety of majors are offered, all cadets graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree, in continuation of the academy’s traditional emphasis on engineering. Most military training takes place during the summer, and cadets spend their third and fourth summers serving in active Army units around the world, either attending advanced training courses or training first and second year cadets. The physical program includes a prescribed series of physical fitness courses. All cadets take military movement (applied gymnastics), boxing (men) or self defense (women), swimming, and advanced hand-to-hand combat techniques.

A post-9/11 visit to the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY is a very different experience from that available previously. In the past, visitors were free to walk around the campus. Now you are limited to accompanying the organized bus tours, which only stops and lets you walk around a bit in a couple of spots (literally). This severely limits photo opportunities, but while inside the West Point Museum you can take all the photos you want.

Trophy Point overlooks the middle of the famous “S-Curve”, facing northward. The Hudson River flows downstream directly towards the viewer, then makes a sharp left. The Great Chain was placed slightly out of view to the right, before the river makes a sharp right, thereby completing the “S”.

The West Point parade field is known as “The Plain” because its flat terrain contrasts with the varied and hilly terrain of the remainder of the campus. Across The Plain is the entrance to the cadet mess hall, and in front of the entrance is Washington Monument. I was told that the lengthy wings extending from both sides of the mess hall entrance are used as barracks.

Most of the buildings in the central cadet area were built in a neogothic architectural style, from granite that has a predominantly gray and black hue.

This is the West Point Cadet Chapel, completed in 1910 in a gothic revival architecture characterized by soaring arches and ornate stone carvings. It hosts one of the larger church organs in the world, boasting of some 23,000 individual pipes. The architectural style is referred to as military gothic, a term generally used to emphasize the presence of towers, turrets, battlements and fortified walls. There are also Catholic and Jewish chapels on the campus.