History
Rip Raps was originally built in 1817 as part of the harbor defenses to provide a setting on the south side of the navigation channel for Fort Wool (originally named Fort Calhoun), the companion to Fort Monroe (on the northern side of the channel) in protecting access to Hampton Roads and the inland rivers which are tributaries. Fort Wool was decommissioned after World War II.
President Andrew Jackson used it as a retreat, visiting between August 19, 1829 through August 16, 1835.
Rip Raps is located adjacent to one of the unnamed man-made islands of the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, which was initially completed and opened to traffic in 1957. However, Rip Raps and Fort Wool are accessible to the public only by water via harbor tours.
Note: The availability of public tours of both Fort Wool and Fort Monroe are subject to Homeland Security Alert conditions.
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Famous quotes containing the word history:
“When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“The principal office of history I take to be this: to prevent virtuous actions from being forgotten, and that evil words and deeds should fear an infamous reputation with posterity.”
—Tacitus (c. 55–c. 120)
“We know only a single science, the science of history. One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature and the history of men. However, the two sides are not to be divided off; as long as men exist the history of nature and the history of men are mutually conditioned.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)