The Dry Tortugas National Park is one of the most remote parks in the national park system. The park is 70 miles from Key West and is now only accessible by private boat or one of the two ferries that visit the park daily from Key West. Until the end of 2008, sea planes were also able to visit the park. We were fortunate enough to visit the park by sea plane on our first trip to Key West. On this trip we took a ferry to the fort and camped out overnight.
The most fascinating reason to visit the Dry Tortugas National Park is to see Fort Jefferson. Construction on the fort started in 1846 and went on for 30 years. Although the fort was never completed, it was complete enough to use as a prison during the Civil War. The most famous prisoner at the fort was Dr. Samuel Mudd who was convicted for conspiracy in the assassination of President Lincoln. His crime in the assassination was setting the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth.
It is pretty amazing to see a brick fort in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, especially a fort covering a 10 acre island, built from 16 million bricks, and surrounded by a moat wall. This place is so special, it will require more than one post on the blog. This post will be the appetizer for more to come.
For more info on the park, visit the following link:
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