Dry Tortugas National Park, a 100-square mile park, is known as the home of what?

Almost 70 miles (113 km) west of Key West lies Dry Tortugas National Park. This 100-square mile park is mostly open water with 7 small islands. It is accessible only by boat or seaplane. The park is known the world over as the home of the magnificent Fort Jefferson. It is found among picturesque blue waters, superlative coral reefs and marine life, and a good assortment of birds within the park area.

Historic Fort Jefferson is located on Garden Key and is one of the nation’s largest 19th-century forts located within the USA. It is composed of over 16 million bricks and occupies over 70% of Garden Key, one of the larger islands of Dry Tortugas National Park. This fort was originally intended to defend a harbor for ships of the US Navy, allowing naval forces to control shipping through the Straits of Florida and trade through the Gulf of Mexico into the Mississippi River.

The history of Fort Jefferson's construction is bewildering. It was noted in 1829 by US Navy Commodore John Rodgers as an ideal place to have an advanced military location to protect the Gulf Coast. The study and design process took 17 years, culminating in 1846 with the start of construction. The fort was still not complete in 1865 at the end of the US Civil War, by which time the invention of rifled cannon had made the fort itself obsolete.

The fort was used, unfinished, as a US Federal prison during and after the Civil War. It still remains unfinished today; it is used as a marine research station.