...birthplace of the Atlantic!

Battery Park (also known as 'The Battery'), which includes a park known as White Point Gardens, is another Charleston landmark, famous for its stately antebellum homes. First used as a public park in 1837, it became a place for artillery during the Civil War. The Charleston Battery stretches along the shores of the Charleston peninsula, at the intersection of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers.

From the Cooper River side, Fort Sumter and the point are visible, along with Castle Pinckney, the World War II aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-10) museum, Fort Moultrie, and Sullivan's Island.

From the Ashley River side, you can see James Island across the harbor (with Fort Johnson furthest out), and the Ashley River starting its move up towards Summerville.

In the 18th century, boulders and other heavy materials were used to fortify the shore of the Cooper River here. In 1838, this area of the Battery, known as High Battery, became a promenade.

Before becoming a park, Fort Broughton (ca. 1735) and Fort Wilkins (during the American Revolution and War of 1812) occupied White or Oyster Point, so named because of the piles of bleached oyster shells on the point. This site is now known as White Point Gardens and has many large oak trees, a bandstand, memorials, and pieces of artillery, some of which were used during the Civil War.

A monument in White Point Gardens commemorates the hanging near that site of pirate Captain Stede Bonnet and his crew in 1718 and the 1719 hanging of Richard Worley's pirates. The monument states 29 of Bonnet's crew were executed close by, but the evidence suggests only 22 actually hung.