THE HISTORY OF WEST POINT
West Point was formerly known as Fort Clinton, a site that was fortified at the time of the Revolutionary War. It was first chosent for the reason of abnormal S-curve of the river known as the Hudson River. By then, the defenses of the fort were designed by a military enginee named Tadeusz Kościuszko while he was serving as a brigadier general in the Continental Army.
From Fort Putnam, around1865, it was manned by a small garrison of Continental Army soldiers in 1776 until the end of the war that same year. At this point, a great chain was laid on the river Hudson in 1778 to prevent the vessels from the British Navy from sailing up the Hudson River.
In what was probably the most infamous act of treason in American history, a General, Benedict Arnold, tried to turn this site over to the British Army in the year 1780 for a bribe which consisted of a commission as a Brigadier General in the Army of the British and a cash amount of £20,000 (approximately $1.25M in nowadays). Nevertheless, the plan did not go through because of a British Major (John André) who got captured as a spy by Americans. Arnold received a decreased cash reward of £6,000 (roughly $350,000) but was commissioned as a Brigadier General in the British Army.
West Point was used as a storage when the American Revolution ended, storing cannon and other military machines used by the Army. For a few monthys in 1784, the United States Army was formed by only about 80 soldiers under Brevet Major John Doughty at West Point.
The US Military Academy was founded at West Point in 1802 and is said to be the nation's oldest service academy.
