Great article on Bannerman's

[Shreckmeister]

I feel ignorant that I didn't know anything about the history of Bannerman's or this island.  Very interesting.

http://www.abandonedspaces.com/uncategorized/pollepel-islandbannermans-castle.html

[OLUT]

The statement  that  "200 tons of shells and gunpowder"  exploded on Bannerman's Island on August 15, 1920 seems greatly misleading. According to my Bannerman's 1927 catalog reprint and other accounts, it was 200 pounds of gunpowder that blew up and ..."the blast blew out hundreds of windows in nearby communities up and down the river." A contemporary account estimated the damage at $50, 000. But, before then, it must have been a unique collector's paradise.

[smokinbuck]

I just read the posted story and am not sure it's correct, but things change over the years. I worked in the area in the mid 1970's and tried to get out to the island. At that time visiting the island was banned and no locals would take me out. It's my understanding that the concrete was reinforced with cannon and musket barrels during construction. There are obviously a lot of myths and legends about the place.
Mark

[satwel]

Concrete reinforced with cannon and musket barrels may not be a myth.
I worked as a volunteer at Springfield Armory National Park in 2010 and 2011. One day I was chatting with an elderly local guy who stopped by the museum. He said when he was a young man he worked for a contractor who had been hired to repair the dam down at the Water Shops. When they started to remove an old concrete addition to the original mill dam, they found it had been reinforced with socket bayonets instead of rebar. He guessed either Civil War or Trapdoor era surplus.

[Hungry Horse]

 You don't have to look back that many years to find gun barrels used as rebar. I helped a neighbor when I was in high school, remove a wall in the house he recently bought, so he could add another bedroom. The house was built right after WWII. I call these post war houses, bomb shelter houses. There were more than a few of these cinder block, and concrete, houses built in my neck of the woods by returning G.I's. This one had every void filled with old gun barrels, wired together, and filled with concrete. The builders father was an old gunsmith, that must have had a truckload of old gun barrels. Some of the barrels we found were big old longrifle barrels.

  Hungry Horse

[Levy]

Fort Taylor in Key West was reinforced with antiquated cannon barrels as its construction continued through time.  Some are now visible half in and half out of the concrete.  I believe that Fort Taylor was an ordnance depot.  James Levy