The Snapshots in Time Collection

Fort Drum, the 'Concrete Battleship,' El Fraile Island, Manila Bay

Fort Drum, the 'Concrete Battleship,' El Fraile Island, Manila Bay

Fort Drum, popularly nicknamed the 'Concrete Battleship,' was built atop El Fraile Island at the mouth of Manila Bay and completed in 1919 as part of the U.S. Army's Harbor Defenses of Manila. Armed with 14-inch guns in armored turrets, it was designed to look and function like an unsinkable warship. Fort Drum endured sustained Japanese bombardment during the fall of Corregidor in 1942 and was recaptured by U.S. forces in 1945. Project: 218614