At the southeastern tip of Rip-Raps Island, atop which Fort Wool inexorably settles, there is a sight common to many American seacoast fortifications: The ubiquitous pile of granite blocks! As fortifications were improved through the 19th and into the early 20th century, those doing the improving found themselves with a superfluity of granite blocks. What to do with these relatively useable, and difficult-to-transport, building materials? The answer in every case seems to have been, "dump them over there someplace."