Fort Putnam - located at
West Point, New York, 451 feet above the
Hudson River, overlooking the plains of West Point.
The main purpose of this Fort Putnam during the Revolutionary War was to help defend the lower forts. These lower forts were strategically placed close enough to the Hudson River to prevent enemy ships from penetrating the interior of New York and New England to the north. The river was an important communication and supply link between New York and the interior.
Construction of the fort during the Revolutionary was was an engineering feat that necessitated the transport of huge boulders and mortar to the to the top of the steep hills that line both shores of the Hudson River.
It was this fort and others that Benedict Arnold intended to deliver to the British in an act of treason