Under President
Grover Cleveland's administration in 1885, the
Board of Fortifications under
William C. Endicott was ordered to investigate the value and state of the United States' coastal defenses. Endicott found that America had fallen behind and that new naval technology made many forts and coastal defense weaponry obsolete. The 1886 report recommended a $127-million ($ in ) construction program of breech-loading cannons, mortars, floating batteries, and submarine mines for some 29 locations on the US coastline. New fortifications built in the following decades as a result of this report were called "Endicott Period" fortifications. Finding a need for long range weaponry, the
United States Army Coast Artillery Corps ordered a 16-inch (406 mm) gun, the construction of which began in 1895 at the
Watervliet Arsenal in
Watervliet, New York. The massive artillery piece was designated the M1895 and was completed in 1902; only one was built. At it weighed more than any gun that had ever been created up to that point. The weapon was shipped from the Watervliet Arsenal to
Watertown Arsenal in
Watertown, Massachusetts to be packed for shipment to the Panama Canal Zone. It was installed on an M1912
disappearing carriage in
Fort Grant on the Pacific side of the canal in 1915, where it protected the fort until it was scrapped in 1943. == Gallery ==