Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida.
Fort Jefferson, located in Dry Tortugas National Park of Florida, is a massive former coastal fortress built on a small island, and it is a landmark piece of U.S. history. The Park presents some challenges to visit. Dry Tortugas is located about 70 miles (113 km) from Key West, the westernmost island in the Florida Keys chain. Despite the travel issues, the fort is a popular tourist destination accessible by ferry from Key West, seaplane, or private boat. I will feature a Travel Tuesday post with more details about the journey and the fort. Consider today’s post a teaser.
This behemoth fort is constructed with over 16 million bricks, making it the biggest brick structure in North and South America. Only a few other US forts, like Fort Monroe in Virginia, surpass its size. It was a significant challenge to bring building materials to the island, so it’s understandable why Fort Jefferson was never fully finished or armed despite nearly 30 years (1846-1875) of construction. I will save the rest of the history lesson for the upcoming Travel Tuesday post.
The fort’s construction involved many supporting brick walls, and accessibility from one section to the next required many openings, each supporting the roof structure above with a brick archway. Some of the archways were only wide enough for a person to use, while others allowed men and equipment easy access throughout the fort. I was presented with many opportunities to capture images featuring repeating arches.
In addition to the doorway arches, there are outlines of arches on the floor. They are the remnants of tracks used by wheels at the back end of cannons that were pointed toward the seaside gun ports. The gun ports are not visible due to the short wall arch supports on the right.
About the photo: Looking north from the east side of the hexagonal fort, the interior fort walls were mainly open and offered minimal obstruction, allowing sunlight to flood the interior along nearly the entire wall. Using my Samsung S23U, I captured the image of receding arches. After cataloging and cropping within Lightroom Classic, I exported the image to Luminar Neo. From there, I did very little processing. I lowered the highlights in the Develop module. Then, I used Enhance AI to increase the contrast and add additional light to the darker foreground due to the wall on the left in this section. You are welcome to pixel-peep at the image in 2K HD on my Flickr site by clicking on the image.
I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s also acceptable. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.
John Steiner
[…] Cellpic Sunday […]
That arcade shot is so good, John!
I did something I normally never do: https://picturesimperfectblog.com/2024/06/16/when-i-became-a-paparazzi/
Thanks! It’s a shot that begged to be captured. >grin<
👍🏽
[…] Posted for John’s Cellpic Sunday […]
An amazing building, John and your photo is beautiful.
Here is mine:
Thanks, yours as well. Great response to my photo!
Happy Sunday 🙂
And to you as well!
I tried commenting and clicking your “Like” on the post, but neither of them show up when I reload your page. Let me know if the comment showed up in your spam folder.
thank you, John 🙂
[…] For John’s Cellpic Sunday. […]
Beautiful arcade, John 🙂! My entry here:
Thanks, PR!
Great looking building, John.
Here is mine https://wanderingteresa.com/aliens-have-landed-in-fed-square/
[…] In response to Cellpic Sunday – Exploring Fort Jefferson. […]
[…] Also sharing for Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday. […]
That is one big fort, John! I guess they built it right to make it not easily accessible. I like the lighting in the giant hallway. Here is my cellpic Sunday for this week:
https://secondwindleisure.com/2024/06/16/sunday-stills-your-daily-dose-of-sunrise-and-sunset/
It is, indeed, Terri. Thanks for always contributing to Cellpic Sunday.
I tried to comment on your post and “like” it, but even after it made me log in, neither my comment nor like remained when I reopened the page.
The same thing happens to me, John. But I did get both comments, and replied. Have a happy father’s day!
Thanks, Terri!
[…] is for Cellpic Sunday and Sunday […]
John, this post takes me back to many years ago when we took the ferry from Key West to visit Ft. Jefferson. I’m looking forward to more picture and reading more about your time there.
Our few days in Key West were really enhanced by our trip to Fort Jefferson.
A perfect lineup of the arches; love it 😃
Thanks, Jez! The repetitive effect just cried for a photo! >grin<
[…] Shared with Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday […]
[…] Steiner, the blogger behind Journeys With Johnbo, has this prompt he calls Cellpic Sunday in which he asks us to post a photo that was taken with a cellphone, tablet, or another mobile […]
[…] Hi all 👋 My latest post for Macro Monday & for John’s Cellpic Sunday. […]
[…] Posted for Journeys With Johnbo Cellpic Sunday. […]
Dear John
GREAT picture 👍
We have to admit we visited Key West several times but we didn’t know about Dry Tortugas. What a pity!
Thanks for sharing
The Fab Four of Cley
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
It is a cool day trip!
[…] Photobyjohnbo-Cell-Pic-Sunday24-0616 […]
I like the arch within an arch effect of the primary photo, like reflecting upon eternity and the illusion of permanence in man made structures. They should have a small market down there to sell ice cream.
They need it… it was quite hot in the fort. >grin<
Fascinating picture, John. It’s almost like a mirror, archway after archway. I bet you had a great time taking photos. I’ve been to several forts, but that beats any pictures I’ve taken of any fort. I love it! 🙂
I have never seen that design before in any of the forts I’ve visited as well. I have a bunch of similar images and picked the one I liked the best from the set.
You picked well, in my opinion. 🙂
[…] Cell Pic Sunday – the only requirement is to use a cell phone […]
Superb! I thought it’s a mirror reflection!
👍👍👍
That it could have been, an easy conclusion. In a future Travel Tuesday post, I’ll share some more images from this interesting place.
Looking forward to your upcoming Travel Tuesday post! Excited to see more images and learn more about this intriguing place you’ve visited.
[…] This post is part of John S’s Cellpic Sunday […]
My contribution
https://philosophyvia.photos/2024/06/22/golden-crust-a-must/