New London COUNTY · Coastal defense and maritime education
Fort Trumbull: defense, training and changing technology
Successive fortifications, a cadet school and undersea research gave this New London waterfront a history larger than its surviving stone walls.
Historical focus · 1777–20th century; later documentary photographs
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The story in photographs
November 2007 (creator’s description; November 12 is upload date)
Fort masonry beside the Thames, 2007
Close view of Fort Trumbull’s masonry wall and bastion, with the Thames River beyond.
Image credit & source
Monsieurdl / Wikimedia Commons
Photographer released this photograph into the public domain. Repository JPEG display copy; no cropping or reconstruction by this website.
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October 2, 2023
Fort Trumbull across the harbor, 2023
Fort Trumbull and neighboring waterfront buildings seen across the water beneath a broad sky.
Image credit & source
Giorgio Galeotti / Wikimedia Commons
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0; credit Giorgio Galeotti. Repository JPEG display copy; no cropping or reconstruction by this website.
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THE STORY BEHIND THE PHOTOGRAPHS
People, places, and change.
More than one Fort Trumbull
The first Fort Trumbull was completed in 1777 and named for Connecticut governor Jonathan Trumbull. British forces under Benedict Arnold captured it in 1781. That Revolutionary fort should not be confused with the large masonry work visible today. The surviving fortification was constructed between 1839 and 1852 as part of the federal Third System of coastal defenses, with Egyptian Revival features in its stone architecture. [1] [2]
A school on the waterfront
The Revenue Cutter Service moved its academy to Fort Trumbull in 1910. Cadets combined shore instruction with training aboard ship; the institution became the Coast Guard Academy when the Coast Guard was created in 1915. In 1932 the academy moved upriver to a new campus. Fort Trumbull was therefore an important chapter in the academy’s development, rather than the birthplace of the Revenue Cutter Service itself. [3]
Reading the later landscape
The site’s later military history included research associated with the submarine threat of World War II and the Cold War. The state park interprets those changes alongside the older fort. The two photographs here document the preserved waterfront in 2007 and 2023: one follows the masonry at close range, while the other places the fort among the harbor’s piers and buildings. They show later conditions, not wartime activity. [2] [4] [5]
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Building dates and photograph dates are recorded separately. Later photographs are identified in their captions; unknown exposure dates remain unknown. Follow each image’s credit and reuse terms.