While we were visiting the beach at Fort Zachary Taylor we decided to walk over to Fort Taylor to check it out.

Fort Taylor was built in 1845 and constructed along the coastline to prevent sea attacks to the United States. When it was completed, it was 3 stories tall, held 140 cannons and was home to almost 450 soldiers. Removal of the 2 upper tiers was in 1898. Fort Taylor defended the US during the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War 1 and World War 2. It's service to the nation ended in 1947. It was declared a National Historic Site in 1971 and a National Landmark in 1973. It was acquired by the State of Florida from the US Navy in 1976 and opened as a Historic State Park in 1985.

They had restrooms before you enter and pop machines...only they were completely out of diet. BOO!

This was the Blacksmith's Shop

I'm going to bombard you with pictures of the place right now because I honestly can't tell you what everything was other than historical "stuff".

I can tell you that these were the forts Jail cells. I remember reading about it. On each side of the Sally Port were prison cells. The Sally Port was the only entrance to the Fort. You came in by crossing an 1,100 foot wooden causeway from the island and a drawbridge protected others from coming in. Soldiers, sailors and blockade runners were often held in the cells until they could be tried for their charges.

The grub hub area

The flag was flying at half staff, we think, since word was that Pope Francis had passed.

We decided to head upstairs to take a look around.

The hubby was dragging behind. Come on, there's awesome views from up here!

What is this off in the distance???

Well, we had walked around the entire place and time to head out.

Along the way I spotted something over by the trees. Eek! It's several iguana's. I didn't even realize they had iguana's down here. I guess I always thought it was a Caribbean thing. One was really huge!

The big orange one was throwing his head up and down and showing us he was king of this territory.

Ok, time to head back out and catch another Uber back to the port.

I took a video of our tour of Fort Zachary Taylor but at one point I must have hit a button and put it on some type of warp speed. I've tried to do the video however it's a little choppy because of it. It started out good and just declined from there. I've slowed it down the best I could. If anyone knows how to fix a video like this, please let me know. I'll share it anyhow.