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Fort Negley:
Atop St. Cloud Hill, Fort Negley was built in late 1862 as part of a complex system of defensive fortifications designed to protect the Union garrison in Nashville from Confederate attack during the Civil War. Using the labor of slaves and free blacks, the army built the largest inland masonry fortification in North America, comprised of more than 60,000 cubic feet of stone. Fort Negley was never directly challenged throughout the war, including the 1864 Battle of Nashville.
In the 1930s, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a New Deal program, recreated the fort. The stone arch entrance here in the plaza and the decaying dry-stack limestone walls you see atop the hill are all WPA construction. Today, the ruins of Fort Negley remain as an open-air museum and a testament to Nashville's historic past. The site is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places for its significance as both a Civil War fort and a WPA project. |