Fort Barrancas Pensacola, Florida

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.”

Ibn Battuta

Back in April, while we were on vacation in Pensacola, we took a casual ride on our bikes all around the Pensacola Naval Air Station. What a wonderful way to see this base – up close and personal. This is a gorgeous base with much to see. While riding around, we saw the brick fortress up on the hill and wondered what is was. We decided to find out being the curious folks that we are. We were unsure how to get to the fort from the road below so we took a chance and just tried to ride up the hill towards the fort, through a nice neighborhood, till we dead ended into a large fence around the property. We got off our bikes and walked the fence line until we saw a gate. The gate was locked but fortunately, we saw a young ranger walking by. We yelled over to him to ask how to get in and he jumped in surprise. He told us to wait a minute and he would unlock the gate. He explained while unlocking the gate that people have been said to have seen ghost of soldiers roaming around this fort and it spooked him with us coming from a way no others usually come from. We all had a good laugh as he let us in cautiously looking over his shoulder as we walked in. He bid us farewell and off we went.

We strolled up the walkway leading to the fort and overlook. My, what an amazing fort and in fantastic shape. This fort was built in from 1839 to 1844 by 58 slave laborers who worked with the Army Corp of Engineers. They worked a twelve hour hard day and then slept here doing the same thing day after day. They put all their effort into this fort and their creativity and made an amazingly detailed structurally sound fort. It is interesting these men who had no liberties worked so hard on this fort to help Americans keep their liberty. Their pride in their work really shows and it is a testament that the fort with all the little details is still standing strong. The fort was built out of 6 million locally made bricks and the construction took five years. The fort was built to defend the Pensacola Bay along with the two other forts in the bay: Fort Pickens and Fort McRee. The fort was the scene of an American victory at the Battle of Pensacola during the War of 1812. Later this fort was held by Union soldiers during the Civil War. Then during WWII, the United States Army used the fort as a signal station and small arms range. Now that is a lot of history that happened in this historic site. How impressive.

On April 15,1947, Fort Barrancas was deactivated. 1971 the National Park Service took over the care of this fort and did a $1.2 million restoration (mainly of the Spanish water battery known as Fort San Carlos De Barrancas)which had some large cracks needing to be repaired. This older battery was built downhill from the newer brick fort and was mainly used to fire cannon ball at the ships. The cannon balls would skip over the water and slam into the enemy ships. Barrancas is a Spanish word for Bluff and makes sense since the fort was built on a 60 foot bluff. The Spanish Fort, which is a half moon shape was built in 1787 and is painted a bright white. When we were at the top of the hill, you could see the drawbridge and the beautiful old double doors to the fort. Once across the drawbridge and inside the fort, there was a steep dark hallway leading down to the main level of the fort. Walking through the narrow halls, I stopped and noticed the arched openings through out that were beautiful designed with windows placed strategically down the side of the building. Since we got there early, it was only Joe and I walking around in the fort and it was eerily quiet. I would stop and take a picture as Joe walked ahead of me. He would get around the next corner of the fort before I did and as I walked down the hallways in the silence, I gave much thought to the soldiers who once served in these tight quarters watching the waterways through the slit windows for enemy activity. I could almost feel the energy of the men running to get the gun powder and yelling back and forth to each other to be careful and stay on their game. I'm sure many a prayer was said in these hallways. It must have been terribly frightening.

After exiting the inside of the fort, you can walk to the parade field where the cannons were on top of fort and where the soldiers would have mustered. What a beautiful vantage point they had from there. Fort Pickens is 1 ¾ miles across the bay and Fort McRee was to the right on another island just a short distance from here. Over the years the weather and surf have taken Fort McRee away and it is no more. Looking out to the bay now, it is hard to imagine with all this beauty there was such horror.

After walking around, we went into the visitor center and talked with the ranger about the history and he was very knowledgeable. What a great place to spend some time and to learn more about our countries history. The fort is on the premises of the Naval Air Station in Pensacola. If you are in the Pensacola area and are a history buff, go. It is a wonderful National Historic Landmark to see.