 The commission recommended that a new work be constructed on a ridge above and behind Forts Tillinghast and Cass in order to "...give great additional strength to Fort Corcoran, enabling it to be held, even should the two works in its front fall..." In addition, the commission recommended that additional bombproofs be constructed in Fort Corcoran in order to provide protected refuge for the entire garrison.In the years that followed the completion of the fort, numerous telegraph lines were laid between Fort Corcoran, War Department offices in Washington, and other forts in Northern Virginia.According to a July 1863 report on the operations of the military telegraphs in the Army of the Potomac, six telegraph lines ran between Fort Corcoran and Washington, five between Corcoran and Fort Ethan Allen, two between Corcoran and Alexandria, and one each to two observation points southwest of the fort.