Revolutionary War monument reopens in Newburgh, New York
The Tower of Victory in Newburgh, New York, is open to the public again. Credit: AP
Visitors are once again able to climb to the top of a 19th-century stone tower that was built in New York's Hudson Valley to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of the American Revolution. The reopening of the 53-foot-high Tower of Victory caps a three-year restoration project to fix damage that kept its upper floor viewing platform closed for decades.
The limestone tower initially opened in 1887, commissioned in 1883 by Abraham Lincoln's first son, Robert Todd Lincoln, then the U.S. secretary of war. The $1.6 million restoration shored up the structure and replaced the roof.
Newburgh was selected for the Tower of Victory because that's where George Washington kept his headquarters for the last 16 months of the war as the Continental Army prevented the British from advancing north from New York City. The fieldstone farmhouse where Washington lived from 1782 to 1783 still stands on the property, which was declared a state historic site in 1850.
INFO 845-562-1195, parks.ny.gov/historic-sites
The tower, built to commemorate the centennial of the war's end, offers commanding views of the Hudson River.
