7 Aug
Today we headed north and west from the campground on Route 1 and planned to see the city of Castine and a lighthouse down there. While in route, Doreen discovered an old fort on the map, so we headed a bit further to Bucksport Maine. Approaching the fort, we crossed Penobscot Bay and the Waldo-Hancock Bridge. The suspention bridge was originally constructed in 1931 and during an overhaul in 2003 they found severe corrosion so it had to be replaced replaced. The new bridge includes two 400-foot concrete towers and one of them has an elevator that takes you to the top and the three-level 360 degree observatory. The view was incredible!
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| An aerial view. The observatory is the left column. The fort is also on the left, behind the bridge. |
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| Quite a structure. Each of the tubes is hollow and holds multiple strands of very strong cable. |
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| A view from the bottom, near the entrance where you catch the elevator to the top. |
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| Doreen at the top. Informative displays in each direction describe what you are seeing. |
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| Looking west and the millions of tons of rock that had to be removed for end of the bridge and the road. |
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| Trace of a boat heading into Penobscot Bay. |
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| Another view west and down onto the suspension members. |
After the trip to the top of the bridge we headed around the corner to Fort Knox. Unlike the Kentucky Fort Knox, there is no gold reserves here! The Maine Fort Knox was established in 1844 to protect the Penobscot River valley against a possible future British naval incursion. There was never a shot fired in anger here, but it served it's purpose. It is very well preserved and VERY interesting. Some of it is underground, such as where the powder magazines were. The remainder is above ground, like the gun batteries.
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| This is how the fort looks today! It is huge! |
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| Where the cannons were mounted. They rotated on the steel plates in the concrete. |
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| The tunnels in the fort |
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| More tunnels |
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| Officer's quarters |
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| One of the many powder magazines |
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| One of the many cannons. Notice the carts they used to pivot them. |
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| A re-enactor explained many facets of the fort. |
After touring the fort, we headed down to our original destination which was Castine. There we visited the Dyce head (lighthouse), but it was privately owned and we could only view it from a distance.
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| A view of the Dyce Light and keepers house from the road. |
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| There is a trail you can follow down to the shore, so I hopped off and caught this shot. The keepers house is a private residence now. |
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| The oil house |
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| Wild blueberrys on the trail. They were delicious!! |
Then we headed into Castine for lunch. There is a maritime museum as well as the Maine Maritime Academy. They have a training ship which happened to be in port
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| Lobster traps |
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| One of the hotels |
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| Our lunch restaurant |
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| One of the tugs used by the academy |
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| A ship used by the academy |
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| Beautiful downtown area |
That's it for Castine. We took the back roads back to the RV park. Tomorrow we go on the lighthouse cruise.
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