I was born and raised in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn in the 1940s and 50s. Still a wonderful neighborhood defined by parks and lovely prewar buildings despite being blighted in the 60s by the towers of the gigantic Verrazano Narrows Bridge looming over it (some people like them.) And although though I left for upstate a long time ago, in many ways I still think of Bay Ridge as my home, in great part because I miss the ocean, in particular the Narrows -- the body of water along Bay Ridge’s shore which separates Upper from the Lower New York Bays. And guarding that picturesque three-mile-long two-mile wide saltwater channel almost since the United States came into being there were and are two forts: Hamilton on the Brooklyn side and Wadsworth on Staten Island. At one time both forts bristled with huge cannon able to sink any battleship which tried to pass them, enter Upper Bay and bombard Manhattan. Days long gone. Today Fort Hamilton is all about aging mellow brick buildings...(Read Full Article)