Fort Knox and the bridge tower

They were predicting rain today so we took the truck on a short trip to Fort Knox. This is the fort in Maine, not the better known fort where all the gold is, but both forts were named for the same man. 

copied from their web site

Located on the west bank of the Penobscot River in Prospect, Maine, in an area known as the Penobscot Narrows, Fort Knox is one of the best preserved fortifications on the New England seacoast. The Fort has many architectural features present only to itself, as well as a rich history behind its cannon batteries.
Maine was repeatedly involved in northeast border disputes with British Canada, and the area between Castine and the rich lumber city of Bangor was invaded and occupied by the British during the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Despite the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842, Fort Knox was established in 1844 to protect the Penobscot River valley against a possible future British naval incursion.

The Fort was designed by Chief Engineer Joseph Totten with a number of other engineers serving as superintendents of construction from 1844 - 1869, among them Isaac Ingalls Stevens and Thomas L. Casey. The Fort was named for Major General Henry Knox, America's first Secretary of War, who was born in Boston but retired to Thomaston, Maine in 1796. The Fort garrisoned its first troops from 1863 to 1866. These troops were mostly volunteers undergoing training before being sent to their active posts and included members of the celebrated 20th Maine. Troops were also briefly stationed at the Fort during the Spanish American war in 1898, but never saw military action.

We have been to a lot of old forts in our travels and this one ranks number one to me in the category of construction. There were passage ways all over the place. It is built of carved stone and brick. The archways are pretty amazing. 

  

To the left

The back. Between the barraks (rear wall) and signs are underground storage rooms.

The right

One of the passageways.

That is a big bore cannon

To get to the fort you have to cross over this bridge.

Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory

The Penobscot Narrows Bridge is one of three bridges in the US (the others being Zakim Bridge in Boston, Massachusetts, and Veterans' Glass City Skyway in Toledo, Ohio) constructed recently to utilize a cradle system that carries the strands within the stays from bridge deck to bridge deck, as a continuous element, eliminating anchorages in the pylons.^[1] Each epoxy-coated steel strand is carried inside the cradle in a one-inch steel tube. Each strand acts independently, allowing for removal, inspection and replacement of individual strands. The cable-stay system was designed with a system that uses pressurized nitrogen gas to defend against corrosion.

The Penobscot Bridge site also is home to the Penobscot Narrows Observatory, the first bridge observation tower in the United States and the tallest public bridge observatory in the world.^[4] The tower reaches 420 feet (128 m) into the air and allows visitors to view the bridge, the nearby Fort Knox State Historic Site, the Penobscot River, and Bay.^[4]

The Penobscot Narrows Observatory opened to the general public on Saturday, May 19, 2007. It is open at the same times of the year as Fort Knox (May 1 to October 31).^[4]

The elevator has had a series of technical problems, including one on July 1, 2014 when 13 people were temporarily stuck in the Observatory due to the elevator doors not opening.

You take an elevator within two floors of the top and then stairs to the the viewing area.

Looking down on the parking lot

Looking down on the bidge

 looking straight up 

The fort and the tower only cost $4.00 a person. This was one of the best deals we have had on this trip. They are both operated by the state of Maine. You could pay just for the fort or observatory or both. For 4 bucks we opted for both.

After leaving the fort and bridge we stopped at the Bucksport Bay festival. We are not sure if it was the weather or what but it was the poorest festival we have ever been to. We got there at 1:00 in the afternoon and a lot of the dealers were loading up.

We were both hungry after all that walking around and Louise wanted to try the McDonald's Lobster roll. Only in part of the country have I ever seen this. She said it was pretty good but not as good as the sign claims.

Tomorrow it's Acadia National Park

Duane and Louise