Key West Parks
Dry Tortugas Home Page
A Tour of Fort Jefferson at the
Dry Tortugas National Park
From the top of the fort you get a good view around to the
west
is Loggerhead Key Lighthouse.
To the east is Bush and Bird Key. This area is off limits during the
nesting
season of the Sooty Terns about Feb. thru Sept. This small 10 acre
island is the only place in North America that these birds nest. For
those who like bird watching this is a real treat. As many as 100,000
will come to nest here filling the sky with what looks like mass
confusion, and a noise you may have only heard in the old movie
"The Birds" by Alfred Hitchcock. By studying these birds what looks
like utter
chaos to us. Is really an orderly structured community.
You can see the plane that flew me here from
Key West.
On the top you will see some of the bigger cannons used in the
late 1800's. Looking down into the fort you get a good view of
the place they would keep gun power. Their are two of these.
This being the larger. Neither were ever finished the brick on top
would have been covered with dirt and seeded like the top of the
rest of the fort is. Notice along the top of the fort those small
rooms. In between each one is where the cannons would sit. The
rooms themselves is the storage for that guns ammunition.
From on top of the
fort 'top left' you look towards the
campgrounds,
and the remains of the south coal docks. 'top right' You look over the
south coal docks remains, and a huge pile of bricks gathered as they
clean up the crumbling sections of the fort.
Clyde's Key West Parks
