Fort Pike State Historic Site Begun in 1819 and completed in
1826, Fort Pike was named for the explorer and soldier General
Zebulon Montgomery Pike (1779-1813) whose name is also attached
to Pike's Peak in the Rocky Mountains. Fort Pike is the first of
the Third System fortifications, a group of brick and masonry
structures built between 1816 and 1867. The fort was designed to
withstand attack from land or sea. Although the United States
survived the War of 1812, the British destruction of our
nation's capital and their attack on New Orleans emphasized the
weakness of our country's defense. To prevent a foreign invasion
from occurring again, President James Monroe ordered the
placement of an extensive coastal defense system. These new
fortifications, together with existing ones, stretched along the
entire Atlantic and Gulf coasts and protected strategic ports
and rivers such as New Orleans and the Mississippi. Forts Pike
and Macomb (also called Fort Wood) were two of six new masonry
forts built in coastal Lou