Gulf Breeze and Pensacola Beach, Florida

During the past year our youngest son and his family moved from St. Petersburg, FL to Pensacola Beach, FL, an island off the coast of Florida near Pensacola. As we do each year, we planned to visit them in early spring. So, on March 19th we packed our bags and headed south. About 18 hours later, we arrived in Pensacola and crossed over the bridge to Gulf Breeze, and then another bridge taking us to Pensacola Beach and their home on the white sands of the island. For the next 10 days we enjoyed our two granddaughters, our son and daughter-in-law, and as a bonus the historical significance of these two Gulf Islands.

Pensacola is also known for its Naval Base, which is also home to the Blue Angels and the Naval History Museum.

Gulf Breeze, an peninsula sticking out from mainland "Panhandle" Florida is home to the Naval Live Oaks Reservation, a 1450 acre site originally developed as a tree farm in 1828 for the single purpose of using live oak timber for shipbuilding.

Within these 1450 acres are many interesting trees and plants, as well as wildlife. Among the trees are huge white magnolias reaching up to 70 feet in height with the large shiny leaves of the magnolia. These white magnolias rarely produce the magnificent flower as the flower buds are often eaten by squirrels.

The tree that gets the most attention, however, is the live oak. Like the magnolia, it can reach 50 feet or more in size and is often divided by two or more main trunks. The live oak is known for its durable wood. One reason is its density resulting in a cubic foot of live oak weighing 75 lbs or more as compared to a white oak that weighs 55 lbs.

The high density of this wood made it a desirable wood for the construction of navy vessels. So much so, that cannon balls bounced off the sides of ships constructed with "live oak". Among these ships were the USS Constitution, "Old Ironsides", and the USS Constellation.

The Naval Live Oaks Reservation, part of the National Park Service also has other trees and plants and presents an interesting picture of dense forest with draping Spanish moss giving the visitor a surreal image.

Part of the Reservation borders the bay between Gulf Breeze and Pensacola Beach, and wildlife is often seen, including the great blue heron pictured here.

Among the plants that I found and photographed was this tree-petaled flower, akin to a Trillium sp., including a very small bee that was seeking nectar and transferring pollen.

Before crossing the bridge from Gulf Breeze to Pensacola Beach, visitors are greeted by thus sign proclaiming the excitement of the beach community.

Once on Pensacola Beach, another sign makes one pause momentarily, as we read the possible dangers that could be encountered on the white sandy beaches. The Gulf Islands National Seashores are located smack dab in the middle of hurricane alley. Damage by recent hurricanes Ivan (2004) and Katrina (2005) require significant repairs to island roads and facilities.

These damages not withstanding, popular places such as "Peg-Leg-Pete's" continue to rebuild and continue to attract customers. The white sand on Pensacola Beach is extraordinary; instead of crushed sea shells being the source of the sand, it is pure quartz that originated perhaps in the Appalachian Mountains and reached the Gulf via rivers.

We were particuarly interested in learning more about the history of Fort Pickens, located at the far western end of Pensacola Beach. So, as we entered Pensacola Beach we turned right at the main intersection. Further down the road we saw remnants of the slash pine forest that dominated the island at one time.

On the way we stopped at a parking area and walked on the beach for a while. We came upon a large grouping of brown pelicans. Some are shown on the photo. They seemed to be quite comfortable with people walking around, although closer than twenty feet made them nervous.

Further on I spied a great blue heron on its nest atop a dad slash pine. Watching it for a while I was convinced that it was still in the process of building the nest and that no eggs had been laid.

Finally, we arrived at Fort Pickens, a naval fort whose construction began in 1829 and lasted five years. Hundreds of slaves were used in its construction as skilled workers were unavailable in the local area, and northern craftsmen refused to work in the unhealthy climate of the Gulf Coast due to the continual epidemics of Yellow Fever.

Fort Pickens has had a role in American history that began in 1829 and continued into the the 1940's during the second World War. The fort itself is a mixture of buildings, batteries, powder magazines, and quarters that reflect action during the Texas Revolution and the war with Mexico, the American civil war, the Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II.

In addition, Fort Pickens was used as a prison in 1886 to hold a number of Chiricahua Apache Indians including one named Geronimo. The presence of Geronimo at Fort Pickens also made Fort Pickens a world-class tourist attraction. In 1887 the Army began to allow tourists to visit and as many as 450 /day.

As you approach the fort, your first view is of a thick brick entrance way that actually is part of a wall that surrounds the entire fort.

The original purpose of the fort was to be part of a large Harbor defense system, along with Fort McRee on Perdido Key, and Fort Barrancas located now on the Pensacola Naval Air Station. These three forts provided an overlapping defense of Pensacola Bay.

View of the inner parade grounds of the fort showing the Battery Pensacola and the open arches on the right.

Another view of the open areas within the fort itself. In the far ground are openings for canon fire as a last-defense if the walls of the fort are breached.

View of the open arches part of the fort. These reverse arches were developed to support the weight of the fort on sand, spreading the weight of the entire structure to minimize settling.

Another view of Bastion A. These projections from the corners of the fort created bastions allowing cannon fire down into the dry moat at invading attackers.

Another view of the open arches showing the thickness of the walls made up primarily of brick. In building the fort, some twenty million bricks were used.

A view looking down through the open arches where canon were placed.

A look at one of the areas within the arch.

An outside view of the open arches showing the layout of bricks.

This view shows the south wall of the fort where the quarters were located. This is also the area where Geronimo and the other Apache prisoners were were housed.

View inside the fort showing an old civil war-era canon.

Another view inside the fort showing an area that was used for gun emplacements. At one time over 100 canon could be brought to bear on he channel into Pensacola Bay.

Ironically, the only real action that the fort endured occurred when the country was at war with itself. Fort Pickens was one of only four seacoast forts in the South that remained in Union control during the Civil War.

A 15-inch Rodman canon at Tower Bastion. When the fort as first built, the end of the island was a mere 150 yards away. Today, this area of the fort is almost a mile from the end of the island.

Looking towards the end of the island from Tower Bastion.

A view of Tower Bastion with the 15-inch Rodman canon as seen from outside the fort.

Another view of Tower Bastion with its Rodman canon. This view shows the continuation of the fort and the outside of the open arches; all the openings held canon during the civil war.

Old glory stand proud and tall every day of the year.

This old picture of Geronimo is used in all the Fort Pickens literature to describe his imprisonment at Fort Pickens.

This is a view of new canon mounts in an upgraded fort built during the Spanish American war about 1898. Powerful rifled canon were included towards the end of the Civil War and maintained into the early 1900's.

Battery Payne and Battery Pensacola were developed in 1904 and 1899 respectively

This view shows powder magazines incorporated into Battery Trueman built in 1905.

This picture shows a view from Battery Payne. All of the batteries erected within the fort were strategically located for optimum coverage.

One of the Batteries that was developed during the Spanish-American War. Others included Battery Cullen and Server.

Overall view of the battery emplacements and service areas built during the Spanish-American War.

During World War I, this gun emplacement and service bunkers were built, however they were never used.

At the beginning of World War II, new gun emplacements were built and heavy canon placed there to protect the area from possible attacks by German submarines. Two such canon can be seen in this picture.

A closer view of one of the WW II canons placed at Battery GPF in 1937 or Battery 234 in 1943.

View of the WW II canon looking out into the Gulf of Mexico

The last artillerymen left Fort Pickens in 1947. It now remains as a testament to our military resources over a period spanning some 118 years, and is maintained by the National Park Service as a unit of the Gulf Islands National Seashore,