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There are actually two Fort
Williams, the old and the new.
The original fort was built by
the British East India Company
under the supervision of John
Goldsborough. Sir Charles Eyre
started the construction of
the old fort by constructing
the South-East bastion and the
adjacent walls. In 1701, John
Beard, the successor of Sir
Charles Eyre, added the
North-East bastion, and on
1702, he started the
construction of the Government
House (Factory) at the center
of the fort. The construction
of the Old Fort was completed
on 1706 AD. Situated near the
bank of the river Hooghly, the
original building had two
stories and projecting wings.
A guard room in the fort
became the Black Hole of
Calcutta.
In 1756, the then Nawab of
Bengal, Nawab Siraj Ud Daulah,
attacked the fort and
conquered the city and changed
the name of the city to
Alinagar. the Nawab of Bengal,
led the British to build a new
fort in the Maidan. The
construction of the new fort
was started by Robert Clive in
1758, after the Battle of
Plassey (which occurred in
1757), and was completed in
1781. The cost of construction
was approximately 2 million
British Pound. The area around
the fort was cleared, and
became the Maidan, The Lungs
of Kolkata. The Maidan
streches for around 3 km in
the North-South direction and
is around 1 km wide.
The fort is octagonal with
three sides facing the Hooghly
River. The old fort was
repaired and used as a customs
house from 1766 onwards.
The new fort is still in use,
and is used as the
headquarters of the Eastern
Command of the Indian Army
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F
ort_William%2C_India
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