Fort Tilden was named for Samuel J. Tilden, governor of New York and Presidential candidate. It was established in 1917 as part of the emergency fortification for World War I and was intended to defend New York from attack by sea or air.
New York City required a municipal airport and several locations for it came up for discussion. The mayor of the time, Fiorello LaGuardia, wanted it placed on Governor's Island. Despite this, the site chosen was Barren Island.
This station was built in 1952 / 53 as a prototype of the stations that would become the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line In 1956, with completion of the line nearing, its role changed to that of a training facility for the personnel that would man the stations in the Arctic.
I drove along the street, looking for the specific building I wanted. There were more run-down industrial buildings along here than I expected, so my head was kind of on a swivel. I love this sh*t!
This building was originally constructed as a drying house in 1894, with a single silo added in 1925 for William E. Kreiner of Kreiner Malting Inc. A second silo was added in 1936, bringing the storage capacity to 180,000 bushels.
Opening in April, 1952, Fortuna AFS was home to the 780th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron. The station began operations with a AN/FPS-3 search radar and two AN/FPS-4 height-finders.
Located just outside Cooperstown, North Dakota, the Oscar 0 Missile Alert Facility was built in the 1965 and features a Launch Control Support building (LCSB) and a Launch Control Centre (LCC) 60 feet below.
In the late 1880's, overcrowding at Minnesota's two main psychiatric facilities prompted the state to begin looking at the construction of a third. The legislature passed a bill allocating $24,280 for the purchase of 596 acres of land, and a further $70,000 for construction of the required buildings.
The original stamp mill was located close to Houghton, on Portage Lake. Runoff silt from the mill went into the lake, however, and threatened navigation in this important channel. The government threatened heavy fines and so the mill was moved.