Sepia-tone photo, showing details of a 10-inch gun and the engine platform in an unknown battery at the fort.

Private Charles Tower served with Battery A, 4th Artillery Regiment, at Fort Washington from August 1, 1898, to March 8, 1899. Private Tower took several photos of soldiers and life at Fort Washington. Some of those photos included structures at the fort. This photo is of a 10-inch gun in an unknown battery. This is one of four rare photos that show the 10-inch guns at Fort Washington during the late 1800s.

The 10 inch guns were part of a new defense system, consisting of rifled steel guns in concrete emplacements. Fort Washington was an active post from 1808-1939. Work on these concrete batteries began at Fort Washington in 1891. The next year ground was broken for Battery B, later named Battery Decatur and the guns were mounted in 1896. Eventually eight concrete batteries at Fort Washington and four at Fort Hunt across the Potomac River made up the Potomac Defense Command. In 1939 it was turned over to the Department of Interior. In 1941, with the outbreak of World War II, it was turned back over to the Department of War. In 1946, it was turned back over to the Department of the Interior, National Park Service.