We arrived back in the DC Area on 09/12/2012 and stayed at Outdoor World Gettysburg Farm in Dover, PA. We was there for two weeks and then move on to Cherry Hill RV Park on 09/26/2012 in College Park, MD. On 09/30/2012 we visited Fort Washington NP in Fort Washington, MD. The first Fort Washington was completed in 1809 and guarded the Nation’s Capital until it was destroyed by its own garrison in 1814. Twelve days later Major Pierre L’Enfant was sent to construct new defenses but worked on the fort for only a brief period before Lieutenant Colonel Walker K. Armistead replaced him. The fort was completed on October 2, 1824. Extensive remodeling was performed in the 1840s and the first guns were mounted in 1846. The masonry fort was occupied by soldiers from the First, Third and Fourth U.S. Artillery during its early history. Except for a few guns at the Washington Arsenal, Fort Washington was the only defense for the Nation’s Capital until the Civil War when a circle of temporary forts was built around the city. Battery Rogers and Fort Foote were the only seacoast forts in the system and armed with large Rodman and Parrott cannons. Fort Washington was garrisoned as the outer defense for the city. Companies of the First and Fourth Artillery as well as numerous state artillery units passed through the post during the war. In 1872 the garrison was removed and additional property purchased to construct a new defense system. Funds for the project was withdrawn and the post was abandoned for the next twenty years. A new defense system, consisting of rifled steel guns in concrete emplacements was authorized in 1886 and work began at Fort Washington in 1891. The next year ground was broken for Battery B, later named Battery Decatur and the guns were mounted in 1896. Eventually eight concrete batteries at Fort Washington and four at Fort Hunt made up the Potomac Defense Command. Prior to World War I Fort Washington was downgraded to harbor defense and the large guns removed. During the war the post was used as a staging area for troops being sent to France. The 8th Provisional Artillery Battalion was organized at the post and sent to France where they became the 53rd Railroad Artillery Regiment. After the war the 3rd Battalion 12th Infantry moved in and became the ceremonial unit for the Military District of Washington. In 1939 the post was abandoned and turned over to the Director of Public Buildings for use as a terminal point for a bridge across the Potomac and a parkway to be built along the shore. Before the transfer was complete the United States entered World War II. Fort Washington was returned to the army and became the home of the Adjutant General’s School. After the war the Veterans Administration managed the post hospital and other government agencies occupied some of the buildings. In 1946 Fort Washington returned to the Department of the Interior. The picture is of Fort Washington from river side.
It wasn’t until 1856, however, that the first communication occurred about establishing a lighthouse at Fort Washington Which is an important point located near the junction of the Piscataway and Swan creeks with the Potomac River. The man who authorized the lighthouse was none other than Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, soon to be president of the Confederacy. As the lighthouse would be on military grounds, Davis imposed the following conditions: “the light shall be placed upon the wharf and not within any of the fortifications, and that the light keeper shall be subordinate to the military command of the post and public ground in all that relates to police and discipline.” In addition, it was noted that it would be convenient if the Ordnance Sergeant, who was already in charge of other public property, could care for the light. The initial light at the fort had to be built for only $500, so it consisted of merely an eighteen-and-a-half-foot cast-iron tower topped with a feeble illuminating apparatus. This column, installed on November 7, 1857, was considered merely a ‘temporary’ stopgap to supply river going vessels with at least some form of navigational aid. Ordnance Sergeant Joseph Cameron was the first steward of the beacon and served until 1869. Protestations regarding the inadequacy of the light were soon made, and in 1870 corrective action was taken. In that year, the Lighthouse Board reported that “the framework of a beacon-light to replace the temporary post and lantern at Fort Washington” had been constructed at the Lazaretto lighthouse depot. The steamship tender Tulip transported the 16-foot tower to the Potomac fortress in February of 1870. This new structure was actually shorter than its predecessor, but it was more effective due to is position closer to the shoreline. In addition, it possessed a sixth-order Fresnel lens, which despite being the smallest order, was still a significant upgrade. A 32-foot fog bell tower was added to the station in 1882, and the next year, after over two decades of requests, the Lighthouse Board reported that Secretary of War Robert Lincoln had given permission for “a small wooden structure suitable for a keeper’s dwelling” to be built near the tower. This house was completed in January of 1885, and was later upgraded with the addition of a brick water cistern and a new picket fence. In the ensuing years before the turn of the century, little of note occurred at the station except that a number of boathouses and sheds were constructed along the wharf. These proved troublesome to the light’s visibility atop its sixteen-foot tower. In 1900 the Board remarked that “the tower should be built about 6 or 8 feet higher than the present one, that the light may show above a structure which has recently been erected at the military post…” The Board also complained of deficiencies in the size of the lantern and its ventilation and requested $1600 for a third tower. This amount was never granted, and in 1901 the Board decided to modify the fog bell tower to accommodate a light. It reported that “four new caps were put on the sills of the fog bell tower…and a platform was built on them to support a lens lantern.” The old tower was soon demolished, and although the fog structure was intended as a temporary measure, it is still home to the Fort Washington light signal today. The picture is of the Fort Washington Lighthouse.
On 10/03/2012 we move to Thousand Trails Chesapeake Resort in Dutton, VA. We revisited New Point Comfort Lighthouse in New Point, VA. The Picture is of the New Point Comfort Lighthouse.
