Monday, January 29, 2018

Fort Pulaski - Part II

One of the reasons that I love visiting old forts is that you can usually wander around quite a bit and see the history of the place for yourself.  I also find it interesting to walk through places where others walked dozens or hundreds of years ago.

Fort Pulaski is actually the youngest of all the forts that we visited on this trip.  It predates the American Civil War by only a few years.

According to the fort's website Fort Pulaski is one of the best preserved forts in the "third system" of fortifications designed to protect the coastal United States.

The Third System was established during a relatively peaceful time for the United States. These conditions provided for an unprecedented level of standardization in design and planning. For the first time, a professional board was appointed to oversee design and construction. Close to 200 forts were envisioned to guard the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, however only 30 were built between 1816-1867.

By the early 1820s, the bustling port of Savannah, Georgia was in need of a larger river fortification. Preparations on what would become Fort Pulaski began in 1827. Upon graduation from West Point, Lt. Robert E. Lee, the future Confederate general, was in charge of designing the series of canals and earthworks that drained excess water from Cockspur Island, site of construction located slightly east of Savannah, Georgia. This step was necessary to provide an adequate foundation for fort construction. During the American Civil War, Lee inspected the site and noticed the dike system had worked as planned. Land maps dated the year of the siege, 1862, show the area inside the dike as the only dry expanse of land.
~Fort Pulaski National Monument website, The Third System

While Amy waited below, the girls and I explored rooms and climbed up to the top of the fort's walls.

 This 360° was taken from atop the regular flight of stairs that headed up to the top of the wall.
What's a fort without cannons to look at and take pictures of?

 We ended up crossing over the wall towards these railings.  Inside we found a spiral staircase.

 It was an interesting experience walking down the staircase holding the hands of two small children.

At the bottom we started to explore more rooms inside the walls of the fort.  All of these ones had grooves in the floor from where I assume gun carriages carved them into the wood as they rotated.  You can also see the many arches used to support the walls and ceiling.

 This was the inside (and also outside) section of the walls facing the parade ground.

The inner portion looked like this.  I assume these date from when the fort was used to house several hundred Confederate prisoners.

I looked out an opening and saw this tree.

 This 360° was taken while the kids were with me.  In instructed them to stay behind me as I turned around to complete the picture.

Amy grabbed this picture as both girls were still trying to stay behind me.

 These labels show you the directions to various local landmarks like the south channel of the Savannah River or Hilton Head Island which is just to the north.

Some signs of battle damage remain in the walls of the fort.  Confederate forces didn't expect Union troops to be able to shell the fort from the mainland, but after sustained bombardment and heavy damage they surrendered the fort to Federal troops.

The next post will be the last, covering the barracks and other furnished rooms inside the fort.

~Matt

Sunday, January 28, 2018

Fort Pulaski - Part I

Leaving my sister's place last week we headed to Savannah, Georgia.  The evening we arrived we drove through the city towards Fort Pulaski National Monument, on the seaward side of town.

We knew we wanted to take time to go through the fort, but due to a desire to avoid Atlanta traffic we hadn't gotten as early of a start in the morning as we had originally hoped.

We arrived in town less than an hour before the fort closed, but we still figured it was worth stopping by.  Our last Interagency Annual Pass had expired and while we'd saved up money for a new one we hadn't had a chance to purchase one yet.  Passes are only $80 and last for over 12 months (through the end of the month one year from when you buy it) and we always make sure we have one whenever we're travelling so that we can use it for access to any National Parks site we go to.  So once we arrived we bought our pass and briefly checked out the visitor center and the fort.

 A new bridge is being built right next to the old one, so the old one is down to one lane of traffic and regulated by a stoplight.


The visitor center was closed (due to repairs from hurricane damage I believe), but they had quite nice portable restrooms on-site.

The next morning when we arrived there was only one car waiting, but while we pulled off to the side other cars just waited in line, so we drove around and joined the end of the line.  A couple minutes after 9:00 we showed our pass and drove on to the bridge.

The fort is located on Cockspur Island in the middle of the Savannah River so that it could guard the approaches to the city.

The visitor center is closed as I mentioned above, but I heard signs of work from inside, so hopefully it will open up again soon.  I'd like to see what it has to offer the next time we're in the area.

A small cemetery is located outside of the fort.

Controlling tidal flow over the island was a critical first step in the construction of Fort Pulaski,  A complex system of ditches and dikes drain water away from the fort.  Designed in 1829 by young Army engineer Lieutenant Robert E. Lee, the system created and maintained dry land to support the massive fort.
~exhibit signage

The canal and moat carried supply barges to the fort during its construction and operation.  The moat feeder canal is still used to flush and maintain the moat.
~exhibit signage

The moat is seven feet deep.  As you walk up to the fort you cross over the moat into the outer area called the demilune (French for "half-moon") that protects the entrance.  The area now consists of earthen mounds that could be used to protect other materials in vaulted chambers.

 You can see several recessed doorways in the earthen mounds.

 I walked down the steps with the girls and out the other side.

We even found a large vaulted chamber.


View to the left as you approach the drawbridge.


View to the right.

This is a 360° view just outside the drawbridge.

 The girls really liked the idea of crossing over a drawbridge into the fort.

This 360° view is from the center of the ground inside the fort.

Somebody had a great idea when it came to theming the fort's trash and recycling barrels.

That's all I have time for now.  Next time I'll cover the walk up to the top of the fort's walls and walking around.

~Matt

Friday, January 26, 2018

Welcome to Florida

Today we arrived in Florida.  If I recall correctly this is only the third time I've been in the state.  I first drove through the very northern portion of the state in 2010 when I took a trip through Okefenokee Swamp and when leaving we drove around the south side of the swamp and ended up driving through Florida.

Then in 2014 we came to Orlando with my in-laws to visit Disney World with Abigail.

Now almost four years later we're back, to visit Disney World again and to see a bit more of the state.  This time we wanted to see several historical sites, so we planned a trip with shorter travel days so that we'd have time to make several stops.  As I'm waiting for my other pictures to upload I'm going to start by blogging about our first stop in Florida.

 As soon as you drive into the state you'll see a welcome sign, and then a warning not to stop and take pictures along the side of the interstate.

 The welcome center is under construction, but thankfully it is still open.

 Free orange juice is always delicious.

 Pandora is new at Animal Kingdom since the last time we visited.  I'm looking forward to seeing what it is like.

 The girls enjoyed their juice and seeing things inside, but what they really wanted to see were the balloons on a sign right outside the main entrance.

Outside are some cool exhibits that show off footprints of various native Floridian animals.

Black Bear.  Ranging in color from cinnamon to black, these medium-sized bears are omnivores, as they eat both plants and animals.  Only 1/2 pound at birth, adults can weigh up to 500 pounds, though they average around 150 pounds.  Bears in the North enter a type of hibernation and go for months without eating, drinking, or passing waste.
~exhibit signage

Florida Panther

 River Otter

 American Alligator

 White-tailed Deer

 Gray Fox

 Wild Turkey

 Great Blue Heron

 I took the girls to the Florida welcome sign for a photo opp.

Both of the girls really enjoyed this dolphin since it was both pink (Abigail's favorite color) and blue (Evelyn's favorite color).

We look forward to enjoying quite a bit in Florida over the coming days.

~Matt

Thursday, January 25, 2018

The End of the Road

Today we drove from Tennessee across the state of Georgia.  We're ultimately heading to the Orlando area, but knew that we didn't want to push ourselves too hard with the kids.

We wanted several short days.  Today was one of the longer ones, but the next couple are deliberately much shorter.

Today we did have the traffic of Atlanta to deal with so we got a later start than we originally planned on.  However, I'll take a later day over getting stuck in traffic for several hours.  We ended up getting to Fort Pulaski National Monument only a few minutes before it closed, but it was enough time for us to buy our Interagency Pass (we buy one every year when visiting the first National Park site after our last one has expired).  I plan to post about the Fort later after we have more time to spend there and take plenty of pictures, ;-).

 Driving through the streets of Savannah was beautiful on our way to Fort Pulaski.


Amy was driving, so I opened the sunroof and put my phone up to capture this view of driving under the trees.


Leaving Fort Pulski we turned left on US 80.  Soon enough we crossed over to Tybee Island and actually ended up seeing the end of the road along with a sign informing drivers that the other end of this road is in San Diego, California.  I couldn't get a picture in time so I've included this screen-capture from Google Maps.

We managed to catch several glimpses of the Atlantic Ocean, but like any seafront town Tybee Island has quite a few buildings blocking the view.

While driving back through Savannah we saw this vintage Taco Bell sign.

We thought about staying at this place in downtown Savannah, but decided not to when we found out how much parking cost.

We ended up driving over this huge suspension bridge so we could enter South Carolina for a bit and I could cross it off my list of states to visit.  We do plan to visit the state again in the future--likely with a long weekend in Charleston.

The view from the bridge was also great.

The day's drive ended with a view of a beautiful sunset as we passed through the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge.