Source: MyFoxAtlanta
Two U.S. Coast Guard facilities in the New York area were placed on lockdown Friday afternoon due to unspecified threats, officials said.
Coast Guard Sector New York, at Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island, New York, and Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook, at Fort Hancock in Highlands, New Jersey, are on lockdown.
Fort Wadsworth and Fort Hancock are open to the public as part of the National Park Service’s Gateway National Recreation Area.
Heavily armed NYPD officers set up checkpoints on the approach to the outbound Outerbridge Crossing and the Goethals Bridge, which connect Staten Island to New Jersey. Officers appeared to be visually checking vehicles that were heading to New Jersey. The checkpoints caused traffic to back up for miles on the West Shore Expressway and the Staten Island Expressway all the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge.
Armed Coast Guard police officers could be seen patrolling outside Sector New York’s buildings.
It is not clear if Coast Guard Station New York, a small-boat station less than a mile away from Fort Wadsworth, was also locked down.
Police officers could also been seen driving around the parking lot of the Staten Island Mall.
Officials did not reveal the nature of the threat.
The lockdown comes a day after a gunman killed four Marines at a military facility in Tennessee. Federal authorities are investigating that shooting as an act of terrorism.
