A portrait of Officer's Row At Fort Hancock won top honors in this year's National Historic Landmark Photo Contest. Photo by Britta Burmester.

A portrait of officers' quarters at Fort Hancock in Gateway National Recreation Area came away with top honors in this year's National Historic Landmark Photo Contest. The shot, taken by Britta Burmester, of Linden, New Jersey, captured the buildings in the soft fall light with billowing clouds overhead.

“The light, the clouds and the colors were all doing their thing the day I took this picture, making something ordinary look almost surreal,” she said of the winning photograph.

Fort Hancock provided coastal defense for New York Harbor from 1895 until 1974. During the height of the Cold War, the fort housed Nike missiles prepared to intercept any warplanes that threatened New York City. 

You can see the 12 "honorable mention" photos at this page.

The annual National Historic Landmark Photo Contest encourages people to discover landmarks throughout the country whether urban or rural, on vacation or in their own backyards. Both amateur and professional photographers entered hundreds of photographs in the 2013 contest, creating a portfolio that offers an extraordinary glimpse of the stories and places waiting to be explored.

National Historic Landmark status is the highest recognition accorded by the Secretary of the Interior to historic properties possessing “exceptional value or quality in illustrating and interpreting the heritage of the United States.” Since the program began in 1935, just over 2,500 properties have achieved NHL designation