Sensing the generally rebellious mood of the colonists,
all during the summer of 1776 the British moved soldiers to New York and settled them in camps
on the shore of Staten Island across the narrows from Brooklyn in case hostilities broke out.
After the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, and the failure of Howe brothers
to get the Americans to back down, the British picked up the pace and anchored dozens of war
ships in Just inside the harbor off Staten Island Bay, prompting one colonist to observe that
it looked like “the chimneys of London.” On August 22, 1776 A British invasion
army landed more than 20,000 British and Hessian troops at Gravesend Bay on Long Island’s
shore for what developed into the Battle of Brooklyn, the first military conflict of the United
States of America.
Today the Verrazano Bridge connects the British encampments with the invasion
point for the same reason: it is the shortest distance between Brooklyn and Staten Island. Fort
Hamilton anchors the Brooklyn side, facing Fort Wadsworth on the Staten Island side.
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