Sandy Hook Proving Ground



The Sandy Hook Proving Ground was a military facility, established by the Secretary of War on August 7, 1874, to serve as the United States Army's first proving ground for the testing of ordnance and materiel. The facility was located at Sandy Hook, a narrow coastal spit of land, approximately 6 mi in length and 0.5 miles (varying between 0.1 and 1 miles) wide, in Middletown Township in Monmouth County, along the Atlantic coast of New Jersey. The facility was operated in conjunction with the adjoining Fort Hancock.

The Sandy Hook Peninsula met the army's needs for an experimental testing area for heavy ordnance and was on land that was already government owned. After its formal establishment on August 7, 1874, it was nearly two years before facilities were completed that allowed staffing and testing to reach its potential. Because of the period of time involved, the bulk of the weaponry designed, built and installed for coastal defense under both the Taft and Endicott Boards was tested at Sandy Hook.

A dual military command existed with the Sandy Hook Proving Ground – contained within the site of Fort Hancock – continuing to test ordnance equipment while the Coast Artillery Corps took over the harbor defense mission of the New York Harbor. The Proving Ground continued its operations as a weapons test site until 1919 when the testing was moved to the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Maryland. That change occurred out of necessity, driven by the fact that the "down-range" area at Sandy Hook could no longer contain the ever-increasing range of larger and more powerful weapons. Early steps toward this action came in 1917 when the US Army began to acquire land along the Maryland shore.