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Photo courtesy of VISIT FLORIDA.
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Located on Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas, Fort Jefferson was part of a line of coastal fortifications stretching from Maine to Texas designed to protect the nation from attack by sea. Named after President Thomas Jefferson, the fort occupied a strategic command of the maritime transit point between the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and Atlantic Ocean. Construction began in 1846 and, although never completed, Fort Jefferson remains America's largest 19th century coastal fort. With two tiers, 45-foot-high walls eight feet thick, 12 bastions and curtains for more than 300 guns, the six-sided building contains 16 million red bricks. Construction of the fort was almost complete in 1861 when the Civil War began. Although its guns fired on Confederate privateers, development of the rifled cannon during this period made it militarily obsolete. The fort was used during and after the war to imprison deserters and other criminals, most notably Dr. Samuel Mudd and three other men for their part in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Fort Jefferson was abandoned in 1874 but served as a quarantine station between 1888 and 1900, a navy base during the Spanish-American War, a seaplane base during World War I, and an observation post during World War II. Declared a national monument in 1935, the surrounding islands and the fort were designated a national park in 1992. Hurricanes and cracking of walls due to the fort’s poor foundation have been the only forces to attack "the Gibraltar of the Gulf."
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