Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-02-13
THE DRY ToRTUeAs.
&c. F, Holder, in the New York Evening
Post,)

&C. F, Holder, in the New York Evening
Post)
The concentration of the Atlantic
squadron at the Dry Tortugas (why Dry
no one knows, as 1t is very weD has
drawn attention to unique corner of
the country which occupied an import
ant position during the war, and from a
strategic point of view, is today the
Gibraltar Of America. The keys which
constitute the Tortugas group lie about
so miles west of Key West, and form
the extreme outer end of the United
States in this direction, literally the
jumping-off place-Key. West, Havana
and Tortugas representing an unequal
and suggestive triangle. From Tortugas
a fast steamer can make Moro Castle
in a few hours.
Here on this sand bank, originally the
whim of the gulf hurricanes, stands one
|of the largest forts Of the old type in
the world, monument to departed
greatness and obsolete ideas. No more
forcible illustration Of the wonderful
advance in modern war appliances could
be imagined than this great fortress,
with its three tiers of guns, its carefully
designed arches of brick, it's half-Inile
of iron-framed portfolios and its tur-
reted bastions, ali OF which any one of
the white cruisers lying off it's long
protecting. reef could reduce to a pile
of crumbling brick and mortar in an
hour. Yet the fort and the location are
of great value to this country and by
the expenditure Of more money could
still be made a fort which would defy
the fleets Of any possible enemies.
The Tortugas group consists of a
number of low keys--Long, Bush, East,
Middle, Bird, Sand, Garden and Log
gerhead Keys being the principal ones.
East Key is the largest and Loggerhead
the longest, the latter bearing the light
so we'll known to all mariners who
cross the gulf The entire group is a
coral reef, in almost the centre of which
is Garden Key, 10 acres in extent, which
was elected as the site of the most
southern fort in this country.
Before the invention of long-range
guns, the island was we'll adapted for
the purpose as it was the centre of a
most bewildering reef reached by a
narrow and circuitous channel The
main entrance is from the east From
distance nothing is seen but a long
line of rollers which break on coral
reef several miles in extent. The ship
channel enters here between East and
Bush Keys, passes Sand and Middle
Keys, then almost doubles on itself, run
ming by shoals which at extreme low
tide are almost bare. The channel is
in some places hardly a ships length in
width, and the large cruisers would
have difficulty in going in, if indeed it
was possiblet This channel is deep and
a rich blue, in marked contrast to the
reef. 1t turns gracefully around Gar
den Key, passing between it and Long
Key, then passing Bird Key, so COM
pleting the circuit, and affording an
outlet to the southwest and northwest
by Loggerhead Key.
1t will be seen, then, that Fort Jeffer-
son is coral bank, in the centre of a
great lagoon, protected by coral reefs,
and surrounded by complete minia-
ture harbor. 1t was begun in 1S47, and
was built mainly by slave labor en-
ployed by the government through the
slaveowners in Key West, the skilled
masons being white men from the north.
The work is elaborate in every way, and
how many millions were expended on