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Fort Lee

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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A borough of Bergen county, New Jersey, U.S.A., in the N.E. part of the state, on the W. bank of the Hudson river, opposite the northern part of New York City. Pop. (1905, state census) 3433. It is connected with the neighbouring towns and cities by electric railways, and by ferry with New York City, of which it is a residential suburb. The main part of the borough lies along the summit of the Palisades; north of Fort Lee is an Interstate Palisades Park. Early in the War of Independence the Americans erected here a fortification, first called Fort Constitution but later renamed Fort Lee, in honour of General Charles Lee. The name of the fort was subsequently applied to the village that grew up in its vicinity. From the 15th of September until the 20th of November 1776 Fort Lee was held by Gen. Nathanael Greene with a garrison of 3500 men, but the capture by the British of Fort Washington on the opposite bank of the river and the crossing of the Hudson by Lord Cornwallis with 5000 men made it necessary for Greene to abandon this post and join Washington in the famous "retreat across the Jerseys." An attempt to recapture Fort Lee was made by General Anthony Wayne in 1780, but was unsuccessful. On the site of the fort a monument, designed by Carl E. Tefft and consisting of heroic figures of a Continental trooper and drummer boy, was erected in 1908. The borough of Fort Lee was incorporated in 1904.