Featured in The Army Historical Foundation (AHF) On Point Magazine.
Delaware Bay has long been strategically important to the United States for its access to the Delaware River. Given the importance of the military-industrial complex along the banks of the river, including the large Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, it has been defended and fought over since colonial times. In the years leading up to World War II, the river’s defenses were either obsolete or lacking. Starting in the 1930s the U.S. Army and Navy developed plans for new defenses at the entrance to Delaware Bay centered on the construction of Fort Miles, which primarily took place from 1941 to 1944. Fort Miles boasted several coast artillery batteries to defend the Delaware coast and access to the Delaware River. As World War II ended and the Delaware Bay was no longer threatened by German warships, the Army largely abandoned Fort Miles in 1946. Subsequently, however, the Navy resumed operations at Fort Miles during the Cold War era. Today, Fort Miles is known as Cape Henlopen State Park, which has over a million visitors each year.
