I have now landed in Golf Breeze, Florida which is across Pensacola Bay for downtown Pensacola. It is actually an island & fort Pickens is at the west end. It is part of a series of cannon batteries set up to repel the British after the war of 1812. The fort was built in 1835 and only served as a defence during the Civil War. While being in the south it is one of four seacoast forts to remain in Union control. It is primarily made of bricks & is mostly complete. Pictures you say, OK.
Above is the layout with one part missing (an explosion of a power storage room took out
lower corner). It is situated on a point of land that made it perfect to defend the bay & harbor.
Below is the main entrance which was guarded by cannons built into the walls on either side (see the second photo).
Above is a look at part of the perimeter defensive space around the fort (on the right). It was originally 10` feet deeper than today & made for a great barrier.
See the picture below, those two stair cases (pictured at the left above) meet at the bottom but the lower part is now covered with fill dirt.
Click once on the picture below that describes the workings of the cannon above.
These are a few of the remaining cannons on top of the walls, so of which could shoot 3 miles. You can see in both the tracks (made of iron on top of granite) used to rotate the cannons.
This is one of the wall cannons that when fired recoiled back on this (oak / green ) tracks, so it could be reloaded (see below). It is amazing that it still survives 179 years later.
Some of many smaller batteries around the island are shown below - some do not still their cannons that were sold for scrap years ago.
This last one is unique in that after it fired it dropped down so it was not visible to attackers & the
crew were protected while reloading (see below).
I think we have had enough of the hardware & there is still more, but now for a change.
The fort happens to be right across the inlet to Pensacola Bay from the Pensacola Naval Air Station. It just so happened that they were having an air show (this weekend) for which I had a "ring side" seat. There were the usually assortment of smaller planes but the high point was a display by the Blue Angles. With my little "point and shoot" camera the images are not very big but it was a great show. Here are some of the best shots I got.
Again if you click once on any picture, they are "more better". T
hese last ones are the trails from the displays.
This last is a blue heron (?) that was not to impressed with the planes. Enough & now on to Baton Rouge, La. for a visit with more family. Tootles!
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