The Harpers Ferry Armory, more formally known as the United States Armory and Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, was the second federal armory created by the United States government; the first was the Springfield Armory. It was located in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, which since 1863 has been part of West Virginia. It was both an arsenal, manufacturing firearms, and an armory, a storehouse for firearms. Along with the Springfield Armory, it was instrumental in the development of machining techniques to make interchangeable parts of precisely the same dimensions.[1]
The Armory was a long, narrow complex of buildings, located alongside the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad line on a strip of land alongside the Potomac River. The entrance was close to the center of town, with its train station and hotels, and the bridge, the B & O Railroad Potomac River Crossing. At its peak, just before the Civil War, the Armory had 400 employees.[2]: 185 As of that date, the Armory had manufactured some 600,000 firearms.[3]
During the American Civil War, the Armory was destroyed and its equipment removed; it was not rebuilt. The only surviving building is its former fire engine house, known today as John Brown's Fort. As of 2021, it is not in its original location.
- ^ Hounshell, David A. (1984), From the American System to Mass Production, 1800–1932: The Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United States, Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 978-0-8018-2975-8, LCCN 83016269, OCLC 1104810110
- ^ Lee, Andrew S.; Crosbie, Allison A. (2009). Cultural Landscape Report for the United States Armory and Potomac Riverfront, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park (PDF). Boston: Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, National Park Service. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 30, 2023.
- ^ Faust, Drew Gilpin (December 2023). "The Men Who Started the War". The Atlantic: 82–89, at p. 84.