Six Forbidden Wonders in Far Away Places with Strange Sounding Names

Key West is at the end of the Florida Keys, right? Well beyond, many miles to the west, lies Fort Jefferson, a national park. OK, it's not Forbidden, and it doesn't have a Strange Sounding Name, or is it Far Away, compared to other sites on this list. But one must really, really, really want to go there. This is the one site in this group I have visited. Even further to the west, is a now-unmanned Coast Guard lighthouse.

Fort Jefferson covers Garden Key, a (very) small sand island in the Dry (no freshwater) Tortugas island group. It is a brick masonry fort built beginning in 1842, to help protect and control shipping into the Gulf of Mexico. Rifled cannon made it obsolete before it was completed, but the site was used as a military prison and coaling station. It is reputedly the largest masonry fortification in the western world.

This picture is from: Fort Jefferson

For additional online information, try these sites:

Visit Fort Jefferson ...

Dry Tortugas National Park

Fort Jefferson National Monument

Dry Tortugas National Park

For further printed information, I suggest:

Williams, Joy. Florida Keys : A History & Guide. 1997.

United States Dept. of the Interior. National Park Service. Dry Tortugas : Official Map and Guide. 1997.

MAIN PAGE

You are the visitor since 1 Mar 1999.