Plenty of people cross the George Washington Bridge every week without a second thought about the ground on either end of it. It's just a bridge — until you learn that the New Jersey side of that crossing once held a fort, and that the loss of that fort set off one of the most difficult marches of George Washington's life. Part of that march came directly through towns that many of us in Essex County call home.

This isn't a story I'm telling to sell anyone anything. It's the kind of history I used to enjoy handing my students, back when I spent my days teaching English rather than showing houses: a story that changes how a familiar street feels once you know what happened on it.

The Fort Built to Guard a River

In July of 1776, with the Declaration of Independence barely dry, the Continental Army began building a fort on the cliffs above the Hudson River, on the New Jersey side of what's now the George Washington Bridge. They first named it Fort Constitution, before renaming it for General Charles Lee. Directly across the river, on the northern tip of Manhattan, a sister position called Fort Washington was going up at the same time.

The idea was simple enough: control the river from both banks, and the British Navy couldn't move troops and supplies up the Hudson without paying a price for it. Washington also had ships sunk in the channel between the two forts, on the suggestion of General Israel Putnam, hoping to block passage entirely. It didn't quite work — British vessels sailed past in July with cannon fire doing little damage — but the forts themselves still mattered as a pair of anchors on either side of the water.

The Night the Plan Fell Apart

The pairing lasted about four months. On November 16, 1776, Fort Washington fell to a British assault, and more than two thousand American soldiers were captured in a single afternoon. Watching from the Palisades, Washington understood immediately what it meant: without Fort Washington, Fort Lee no longer had a partner, and it no longer had much military value either.

He began preparing to abandon it. Before he could finish, the British moved first. On the night of November 19 into the 20th, roughly five thousand British and Hessian troops crossed the Hudson and landed about six miles north of the fort, at a spot known as Lower Closter Landing. Washington himself wasn't at Fort Lee that morning — he was ten miles away at the Zabriskie House in Hackensack. It fell to General Nathanael Greene to manage the evacuation, in a hurry, with the enemy already ashore.

What the soldiers left behind tells you how sudden it was: about fifty cannon, a thousand barrels of flour, tents, entrenching tools, and whatever food couldn't be carried out fast enough. A handful of stragglers were captured in and around the fort. There wasn't really a battle. There was barely time for one.

"These are the times that try men's souls." Thomas Paine, writing amid the retreat that followed the fall of Fort Lee

Twelve Days, and Essex County's Own Chapter

What came next is the part of the story that rarely makes it into the textbook version. Washington's army pulled back to Hackensack, then crossed the Passaic River on November 21 at the old Acquackanonk Bridge, near present-day Passaic, burning it behind them to slow Cornwallis down.

From there, the army marched south along the west bank of the Passaic, through ground that is now Nutley and Belleville, before reaching Newark on November 23. Two houses along that route, the Van Riper House and Kingsland Manor, still stand in Nutley today. The Continental Army camped in Newark for about five days — at what is now Military Park, right in the heart of downtown — while Cornwallis's engineers rebuilt the bridges the Americans had destroyed. Local tradition holds that Thomas Paine drafted part of "The American Crisis" during those Newark days, using a drumhead for a writing desk.

Why a Retreat, of All Things, Mattered

It's easy to skip past a retreat when the story you were taught in school jumps straight to Washington crossing the Delaware on Christmas night. But the twelve days between Fort Lee and Trenton are what made that crossing possible at all. Had Cornwallis caught the army at the Hackensack River, or at the Passaic, or in Newark, there likely would have been no army left to cross anything. The retreat wasn't glamorous, but it kept the cause alive long enough to win at Trenton and Princeton three and five weeks later.

What's Still Standing Nearby

You don't need a reenactment to feel any of this. Several of the actual sites are open to the public, and most are within a short drive of Essex County.

A Quick Side-by-Side

Why This Matters to Someone Buying or Selling a Home Here

I'll admit this isn't the kind of thing that shows up in a comparative market analysis. But part of what I enjoyed about teaching for twenty-five years, and what I still enjoy now, is watching a familiar place become more interesting once you know its layers. A buyer touring a home in Nutley or Belleville is walking streets an army once marched down while trying to stay one step ahead of capture. A family settling into Bloomfield or Montclair is a few miles from ground that shaped whether the Revolution survived its first hard winter.

None of that changes square footage or a mortgage rate. But it does change how a place feels once you've lived there a while, and that sense of belonging is part of what makes towns like Glen Ridge, Verona, Cedar Grove, South Orange, and West Orange worth putting down roots in, not just moving through.

Frequently Asked Questions

Summary

Fort Lee fell without a real fight, but the retreat that followed shaped the outcome of the war. That retreat passed directly through ground we now call Nutley, Belleville, and Newark, and much of it is still there to see, from the Palisades overlooks at Fort Lee Historic Park to the quiet green of Military Park downtown. It's a piece of local history worth knowing, whether you've lived here for decades or you're only just starting to look at homes in the area.

This article is provided for educational purposes only and should not be considered financial, legal, tax, or mortgage advice. Historical accounts of Revolutionary War events can vary slightly between sources; details here reflect commonly cited historical accounts. Market conditions change over time, and every situation is unique. Consult the appropriate licensed professionals regarding your specific circumstances.