Fort Dupont Park

Story

Fort DuPont Park is a 376acre wooded park under the management of the National Park Service located in Washington, DC. The name of the park comes from the old Civil War earthwork fort that lies within the park. The fort was one of several designed to defend Washington from a Confederate attack during the Civil War. There are few remains of the actual fortifications.It is one Washington's largest parks and protects an important sub-watershed of the Anacostia River. The park is a popular place for picnics, nature walks, indoor ice skating, mountain bike riding, gardening, environmental education, music, skating, sports, and ranger-led Civil War programs.Adjacent parksFort DuPont Park is adjacent to a series of other national and DC parks. Commonly people refer to all of them together as Fort DuPont. These are the adjacent parks: US government: Fort Chaplin Park Fort Davis Park Fort Stanton Park Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum Benning Stoddert Recreation Center Alger Park Fort Battery Ricketts Avalon PlaygroundFacilitiesConcert venueFort Dupont has a 40-year history of offering a summer concert series. Many famous musicians and bands in the Washington D.C. area have played this venue.Hiker-biker trailThe Hiker-Biker Trail is the primary trail in the park, but there are various side spur trails throughout the parks. While most call the entire park Fort Dupont Park, it is actually four adjacent parks, Fort Chaplin, Fort Dupont, Fort Davis and Fort Stanton, and the trails run through them all from Grant Street SE (north of Benning) south to Erie Street SE near the Avalon Playground. There are about a total of 10mi of trails.