Fort Runyon was a timber and earthwork fort constructed by the Union Army following the occupation of northern Virginia in the American Civil War in order to defend the southern approaches to the Long Bridge as part of the defenses of Washington, D.C. during that war. The Columbia Turnpike and Alexandria and Loudon Railroad ran through the pentagonal structure, which controlled access to Washington via the Long Bridge. With a perimeter of almost 1,500 yards (1,400 m), and due to its unusual shape it was approximately the same size, shape, and in almost the same location as the Pentagon, built 80 years later.
An interior sketch of Fort Runyon, showing activity at the fort during August 1861. The Capitol building is faintly visible in the background, across the Potomac River.
Camp Princeton as it was originally named, 1861
Union soldiers cross the Long Bridge during the occupation of northern Virginia following that state's secession from the Union.
A sketch of Fort Runyon, as published in Harper's Weekly in November 1861. The sketch is an interior view of one of the fort's bastions.
Theodore Runyon was an American politician, diplomat, and American Civil War brigadier general in the New Jersey Militia, serving with the Union Army at the Battle of First Bull Run. Runyon was a lawyer before the Civil War and mayor of Newark, New Jersey, a major general in command of the New Jersey National Guard until 1873, first president of the Manufacturers' National Bank of Newark, chancellor of New Jersey for 14 years and, between 1893 and 1896, envoy and later ambassador to Germany.
Theodore Runyon
