Fort Columbus was the name of a fortification and later the army post that developed around it from 1806 to 1904. Located on Governors Island in New York Harbor, a half mile from Lower Manhattan, it was originally constructed as Fort Jay about 1794 and named in honor of New York Governor, later Secretary of State and Chief Justice of the United States, John Jay. With the election of Thomas Jefferson as President in 1800 there was a shift of power from the Federalists to the Democratic-Republican Party. Jefferson's party objected to the negotiations of John Jay with Britain, which resulted in the Jay Treaty of 1794, which resolved outstanding issues from the American Revolution. The Democratic-Republicans therefore renamed the fort in New York Harbor as Fort Columbus after famous European e