West Point: America's First Military Academy

On March 16, 1802, President Thomas Jefferson signed the Military Peace Establishment Act, formally creating the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. The law directed that a corps of engineers be stationed at the site to constitute a military academy, giving the young republic a homegrown source of trained officers and engineers.

The location was no accident. Perched on the west bank of the Hudson River, West Point had been a key Revolutionary War fortress and remains the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States, first garrisoned in 1778. The academy opened its doors on July 4, 1802, with a tiny class and a single superintendent, Jonathan Williams.

Founded to end America’s reliance on foreign-trained engineers, West Point became the country’s first true school of engineering.

In its early decades the academy shaped much of the nation’s infrastructure, with graduates surveying railroads, bridges, and roads long before they ever led troops into battle.