Fort Montgomery was also one of only nine forts constructed in the United States to have a moat (as was Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas). This made the fort essentially surrounded on all sides by water and accessible only by drawbridge from the land side.
Another interesting and innovative design also was a drawbridge which could be mechanically pivoted on a central balance point with one end raising to block the entrance to the fort and the other end dropping into a curved pit in the postern, or sally port, behind the doorway like a seesaw.
Raising the bridge would effectively cut the fort off from any entrance by land as the bottom of the fort's doorway stood a full fifteen feet above the water of the moat or "wet ditch" below. A similar entrance from the lakeside, known as the 'water gate", also utilized a drawbridge which accessed a dock extending from the fort to the lake.
--Brock-Perry
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