Ft. Knox (but no gold)

Linda was in need of some alone time, so the "boys" headed out for some adventure (...and to do some Mother's Day shopping). Not to far from the campground, near the city of Bucksport is a historic fort that is operated together with an observatory housed within the cable tower of a huge bridge across the Penobscot river. Looking down from the 420 foot high observatory window, you can see traffic on the new bridge and you can see the abandoned 1931 bridge that was state of the art in its time.

Cory and Will are taking in the view down river and reading from view scape plates that identify the different things that can be seen out each of the windows.

The views are magnificent. Incorporating this observation platform into this beautiful bridge makes such a wonderful enhancement to the function of the structure. In my previous life as a highway engineer, I was working on a new harbor bridge in Corpus Christi and we had discussed including an elevator and observation area in that bridge.

Here the boys look at a more interesting view of Bucksport across a bend in the river.

I have corralled Will and I am explaining how cable stayed wing segmental bridges are built and function. (Cory got away)

Even with the extensive bridge engineering lessons, the guys thought the observatory was good fun as well as being educational.

From the perspective of the observation window our big black truck looks pretty dinky.

We then turned our attention to exploring Fort Knox. In studying the history of the fort, we learned this area of the country was invaded and occupied by the British during the Revolutionary War and again during the War of 1812. Congress approved the construction of this fort to defend the river in 1820, but funds were not available to begin construction until 1840.

There was a very informational visitor center that documented the history of the fort and included many items from the years the fort operated.

This massive and imposing structure was built with 5 foot thick granite blocks set on solid local bedrock. It was the first to include iron blast shutters into the cannon portholes to protect the guns. In fact, the fort was so imposing that it was never fully outfitted with cannon and never completely manned. It was used as a training post during the Civil War, but Confederate forces never got anywhere close to this area. In the entire life of this fort, from opening to closing, never a shot was fired.

Just because there were no battles here, it does not mean you can't have fun exploring the place. As a matter of fact, with no famous battles and no famous generals, there is nothing to distract our attention from peeking into all the nooks and crannies and passageways this thing had to offer. We were packing a flashlight and we used it.

I think these guys really enjoyed running around this huge fort imagining all kinds of battles and heroic war play with no quiz to come later about what happened here.