Missile Base

At the opposite extreme of the island rests ruins of another kind, affording another view into Hart's, and our own, troubled past.

Two Nike missile silos, remnants of the Cold War, lay abandoned near the north beach, victims of advanced technology.  Lasting only six years (1955 - 61) the Nike bases were designed as a final, desperate attempt to shoot approaching nuclear warheads out of the sky before they landed in New York City.  They are obsolete now, forgotten in the mad rush toward more sophisticated killing technology, leaving nothing but their rusted, empty silos to remind us that they once were our last hope.

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