But the highlight of the day was Fort Pickens. It was a struggle to find it. There are two barrier islands and Ft. Pickens is on the outer island at the extreme west end.The island it is on has been partially converted into a casino resort somewhat like Ft. Lauderdale. But turning the rest of the island into a National Seashore preserved the white sugar sand beaches and keeps the highrise hotels at a distance. Fort Pickens was a lot different than I remembered from visiting it in about 1966. One bastion of five was accidently destroyed in 1899. The walls were stuffed with gunpowder and set to blow up if an enemy ever took the walls. A fire in 1899 blew up that powder. But it is an old brick pre-Civil War fort that continued in use to about World War I. A reinforced concrete battery was built on the parade grounds of the old fort in about 1904. I was surprised to learn an inverted arch system was used to disperse the weight of the fort on the white sand. The park service did almost nothing to interpret the new batteries for WWI.
13 March 2011
FL Caverns & Ft. Pickens
Sunday 13 March 2011Florida Caverns is a smaller cavern (round trip ¾ mile). It has the flowstone, stalactites, stalagmites, bacon and other formations. I would guess there are about ten major rooms and connecting passages. The guide showed us a sharks tooth, a nautilus shell, and a sand dollar in the ceiling of the cavern.
But the highlight of the day was Fort Pickens. It was a struggle to find it. There are two barrier islands and Ft. Pickens is on the outer island at the extreme west end.The island it is on has been partially converted into a casino resort somewhat like Ft. Lauderdale. But turning the rest of the island into a National Seashore preserved the white sugar sand beaches and keeps the highrise hotels at a distance. Fort Pickens was a lot different than I remembered from visiting it in about 1966. One bastion of five was accidently destroyed in 1899. The walls were stuffed with gunpowder and set to blow up if an enemy ever took the walls. A fire in 1899 blew up that powder. But it is an old brick pre-Civil War fort that continued in use to about World War I. A reinforced concrete battery was built on the parade grounds of the old fort in about 1904. I was surprised to learn an inverted arch system was used to disperse the weight of the fort on the white sand. The park service did almost nothing to interpret the new batteries for WWI.
But the highlight of the day was Fort Pickens. It was a struggle to find it. There are two barrier islands and Ft. Pickens is on the outer island at the extreme west end.The island it is on has been partially converted into a casino resort somewhat like Ft. Lauderdale. But turning the rest of the island into a National Seashore preserved the white sugar sand beaches and keeps the highrise hotels at a distance. Fort Pickens was a lot different than I remembered from visiting it in about 1966. One bastion of five was accidently destroyed in 1899. The walls were stuffed with gunpowder and set to blow up if an enemy ever took the walls. A fire in 1899 blew up that powder. But it is an old brick pre-Civil War fort that continued in use to about World War I. A reinforced concrete battery was built on the parade grounds of the old fort in about 1904. I was surprised to learn an inverted arch system was used to disperse the weight of the fort on the white sand. The park service did almost nothing to interpret the new batteries for WWI.
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