Where Florida laps at Alabama, awaits a fortress on the Gulf of Mexico.
- Fort Pickens on Pensacola Bay
- Built in 1829
- Today, visitors tour the fortress, take in shows by the Blue Angels
"When you walk in, you can't believe how large it is,” said Will Butler, a National Park Service Park Guide for Fort Pickens. "Just imagine an area that is impenetrable by any enemy forces.”
Built in 1829, Fort Pickens protected the mouth of Pensacola Bay, safeguarding Florida's northwest coastline from invasion.
"Like the Spanish, or the British or the French,” Butler explained.
Today, Fort Pickens is part of the National Park Service at the Gulf Islands National Seashore.
Butler said President Lincoln sent Union troops here for The Civil War.
"They fired upon Confederate troops across the bay,” he explained.
That's 200 cannons.
About 21.5 million bricks.
A structure built in the shape of a pentagon, by slave labor.
"This is a fort that was built by a very young country to defend our country's freedom, and we used people who didn't have their own freedom," Butler said.
Ironic, since Fort Pickens was always held by the Union and never fell to the South.
Today, visitors can roam the brick-lined corridors and explore shadowy hiding places.
Each one of the countermines held 1,000 pounds of gun powder. But it wasn't for weapons. Rather it was there to blow the fort up, from the inside out, in case of attack.
Now the courageous are allowed to travel inside, where it gets very dark, very quickly.
Both stalactites and stalagmites are forming inside, while outside, visitors can take in the view, and a free air show.
Just across Pensacola Bay is the home of the Blue Angels. Visitors to Fort Pickens have a front row seat to their training sessions.
"You hear the Blue Angels flying over and that today is our coastal defense. That's why we don't need forts anymore,” Will said and in a sense, coming full circle.
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