Hi All,
Today we took the 2 1/2 hour ferry to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas National Park, 70 miles west of Key West.
Here our Captain maneuvers us to the park dock.
Welcome to Fort Jefferson.
The fort is huge. The perimeter moat is over a half mile long. Eight foot thick walls, 16 million bricks!
The enclosed parade ground is immense. The fort was used as a civil war prison. The most famous prisoner was Dr. Samuel Mudd who treated James Wilkes Booth.
How about firing a 450 pound projectile over two miles. That's what this 15" smoothbore cannon could do. When the Army abandoned the fort they sold all of the metal for scrap. Lucky for us, these 49,000 pound cannons were too much trouble to move.
The lagoon area is a thousand shades of blue. In the distant center is Bush Key with 80,000 nesting sooty terns and 4,000 brown noddys.
There are also hundreds of these magnificent frigate birds. Not our adjective, magnificent is part of their name.
The birding, history and scenery made for a very full day but soon we were headed back to Key West.
Love,
Sandy & Carl
Living & Traveling in our Motorhome
Volunteering across America
617-435-8502
Photographed and sent from Carl's iPhone
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