Which landmark in New York Harbor was built on a former military fort called Fort Wood?

The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor was built on the former military fort called Fort Wood.

Fort Wood was a star-shaped coastal defense completed in 1811 on Bedloe’s Island, now officially Liberty Island. The statue was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, with engineering assistance from Gustave Eiffel and Maurice Koechlin. It was dedicated on 28 October 1886.

The copper statue represents Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom. She holds a torch in her raised right hand and a tablet in her left bearing the date July 4, 1776, written in Roman numerals. Emma Lazarus’s sonnet “The New Colossus,” including the famous “Mother of Exiles” lines, was placed on a plaque in the pedestal in 1903.

The island was called Bedloe’s Island until its official name changed to Liberty Island in 1956. Ellis Island, nearby, is associated with immigration processing but is not the statue’s location.