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Restoration project opens on Civil War-era fort off Florida Keys
DRY TORTUGAS NATIONAL PARK, Fla. (AP) — A preservation project has begun on one of the largest brick structures in the Western Hemisphere, a six-sided Civil War-era fort located on a tiny island 68 miles west of Key West in the Gulf of Mexico.
Directed by the National Park Service, a team of experts has started exploratory work that is the first step in a three-phase restoration of Fort Jefferson, the 19th-century coastal fort that rises out of the sea in the remote Dry Tortugas National Park in the Florida Keys.
When the U.S. Army originally began construction on the fort in 1846, the structure was designed to safeguard U.S. shipping and defend the Gulf of Mexico from potential enemies.
"It was designed to protect one of the most strategic anchorages in North America," said Park Ranger Mike Ryan, one of 15 permanent National Park Service staff at Fort Jefferson. "Justifiably so, it's been referred to as the Gibraltar of the Gulf."
Construction continued for 30 years, but Fort Jefferson was never finished and never fired upon. The invention of the rifled cannon, whose ammunition could penetrate even the 8-foot-thick walls of the fort, made it obsolete for its intended purpose.
During the Civil War, Fort Jefferson served as a Union military prison whose most famous prisoner was Dr. Samuel Mudd, convicted of complicity in Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Mudd was imprisoned for almost four years, before being pardoned in 1869 by President Andrew Johnson.
In 1898, the USS Maine sailed from Tortugas Harbor on its ill-fated final journey to Havana harbor. The ship exploded there in 1898, killing 266 sailors, and helping spark the Spanish-American war.
Later used by the Navy and the Marines, the fort and its surrounding islands were designated a wildlife refuge in 1908 and Fort Jefferson National Monument in 1935. In 1992, the area was proclaimed the Dry Tortugas National Park to protect its historic and natural wonders.
But salt air and tropical humidity have ravaged the massive structure. The fort's iron Totten shutters, installed around each of the lower walls' 146 embrasure openings through which guns were to be fired, are rusting.
The gun shutters were designed to close after artillery was fired through the embrasures, protecting gunners from incoming enemy fire. Yet as they continue to corrode, the iron shutters expand and push the brickwork that covers the walls' coral concrete core outward to the point of collapse.
Working on scaffolding positioned on a platform in the fort's moat, the preservation team is painstakingly restoring a 41-foot-wide by 40-foot-high section of the fort's east wall.
They plan to replace one Totten shutter with cast stone and carbon fiber materials that replicate the shutter elements, but can withstand the subtropical environment, then re-brick the wall around it. Their first-phase work will serve as a guideline for the preservation firm that is awarded the contract for the next phase of the restoration — repairing and preserving additional embrasures.
The work is labor-intensive and extremely detailed. Preservation masons chip away at old mortar with hand chisels and air hammers, removing loose bricks and then resetting them or installing recycled bricks. The masons are challenged by the summer sun and the remote location of the fort.
"The isolation can be a problem and if you've forgotten something, like a nut or a screw, it's an awful long way back to town to the hardware store," said Ross Hunt, a National Park Service exhibit specialist managing the restoration project.
But the work can be rewarding and the scenery spectacular.
"I'm very privileged to be out here," said Mike Higginbotham, a historic mason from Bowling Green, Ky. "It's like a working vacation."
The entire $18 million project is to include restoration of all vertical walls and should be completed by 2010, park officials said.
The goal is to ensure Fort Jefferson, the awe-inspiring centerpiece of Dry Tortugas National Park, survives to be shared with future generations, Ryan said. He added that restoration will be accomplished using as many materials as possible used in the original construction.
"This includes Rosendale cement (and) there's a company in the northeast that produces it from the same quarry and stone used in the original construction," Ryan said.
Fort Jefferson is to remain open to visitors during the renovation, park officials said.
Visitors to the Florida Keys can travel to the Dry Tortugas via daily high-speed ferry service or seaplanes. Both services originate from Key West.
"Fort Jefferson is the apex of masonry art," Hunt said. "When you realize the level of craft work employed (150 years ago) in this place where no one was going to see it, it's an incredible achievement."
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
DRY TORTUGAS NATIONAL PARK, Fla. (AP) — A preservation project has begun on one of the largest brick structures in the Western Hemisphere, a six-sided Civil War-era fort located on a tiny island 68 miles west of Key West in the Gulf of Mexico.
Directed by the National Park Service, a team of experts has started exploratory work that is the first step in a three-phase restoration of Fort Jefferson, the 19th-century coastal fort that rises out of the sea in the remote Dry Tortugas National Park in the Florida Keys.
When the U.S. Army originally began construction on the fort in 1846, the structure was designed to safeguard U.S. shipping and defend the Gulf of Mexico from potential enemies.
"It was designed to protect one of the most strategic anchorages in North America," said Park Ranger Mike Ryan, one of 15 permanent National Park Service staff at Fort Jefferson. "Justifiably so, it's been referred to as the Gibraltar of the Gulf."
Construction continued for 30 years, but Fort Jefferson was never finished and never fired upon. The invention of the rifled cannon, whose ammunition could penetrate even the 8-foot-thick walls of the fort, made it obsolete for its intended purpose.
During the Civil War, Fort Jefferson served as a Union military prison whose most famous prisoner was Dr. Samuel Mudd, convicted of complicity in Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Mudd was imprisoned for almost four years, before being pardoned in 1869 by President Andrew Johnson.
In 1898, the USS Maine sailed from Tortugas Harbor on its ill-fated final journey to Havana harbor. The ship exploded there in 1898, killing 266 sailors, and helping spark the Spanish-American war.
Later used by the Navy and the Marines, the fort and its surrounding islands were designated a wildlife refuge in 1908 and Fort Jefferson National Monument in 1935. In 1992, the area was proclaimed the Dry Tortugas National Park to protect its historic and natural wonders.
But salt air and tropical humidity have ravaged the massive structure. The fort's iron Totten shutters, installed around each of the lower walls' 146 embrasure openings through which guns were to be fired, are rusting.
The gun shutters were designed to close after artillery was fired through the embrasures, protecting gunners from incoming enemy fire. Yet as they continue to corrode, the iron shutters expand and push the brickwork that covers the walls' coral concrete core outward to the point of collapse.
Working on scaffolding positioned on a platform in the fort's moat, the preservation team is painstakingly restoring a 41-foot-wide by 40-foot-high section of the fort's east wall.
They plan to replace one Totten shutter with cast stone and carbon fiber materials that replicate the shutter elements, but can withstand the subtropical environment, then re-brick the wall around it. Their first-phase work will serve as a guideline for the preservation firm that is awarded the contract for the next phase of the restoration — repairing and preserving additional embrasures.
The work is labor-intensive and extremely detailed. Preservation masons chip away at old mortar with hand chisels and air hammers, removing loose bricks and then resetting them or installing recycled bricks. The masons are challenged by the summer sun and the remote location of the fort.
"The isolation can be a problem and if you've forgotten something, like a nut or a screw, it's an awful long way back to town to the hardware store," said Ross Hunt, a National Park Service exhibit specialist managing the restoration project.
But the work can be rewarding and the scenery spectacular.
"I'm very privileged to be out here," said Mike Higginbotham, a historic mason from Bowling Green, Ky. "It's like a working vacation."
The entire $18 million project is to include restoration of all vertical walls and should be completed by 2010, park officials said.
The goal is to ensure Fort Jefferson, the awe-inspiring centerpiece of Dry Tortugas National Park, survives to be shared with future generations, Ryan said. He added that restoration will be accomplished using as many materials as possible used in the original construction.
"This includes Rosendale cement (and) there's a company in the northeast that produces it from the same quarry and stone used in the original construction," Ryan said.
Fort Jefferson is to remain open to visitors during the renovation, park officials said.
Visitors to the Florida Keys can travel to the Dry Tortugas via daily high-speed ferry service or seaplanes. Both services originate from Key West.
"Fort Jefferson is the apex of masonry art," Hunt said. "When you realize the level of craft work employed (150 years ago) in this place where no one was going to see it, it's an incredible achievement."
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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