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Fort Zachary Taylor
Contact Information
P.O. Box 6560
Key West, Florida 33041
(305) 292-6713
History
Construction of the fort began in 1845, shortly after Florida
became a state. In 1850, the fort was named after U.S. President Zachary Taylor,
who died in office earlier that year. Throughout the 1850s, construction on Fort
Taylor was slow. Yellow fever, shortages of material and men, remoteness and
hurricanes had slowed down progress.
When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Capt. John Brannon occupied the fort,
placing it in Union hands. Key West was an important outpost for the Union
because numerous blockade-running ships were detained at Key West harbor and
guarded by Fort Taylor's cannons. The 10-inch Rodman and Columbiad cannons at
the fort had a range of three miles. This was an impressive deterrent to the
Confederate navy, preventing them from attempting to take the fort or the island
of Key West.
Proving to be a severe loss for the South, Fort Taylor remained in Union hands
throughout the Civil War. By the time the three-story fort was finally finished
in 1866 (21 years after it was begun), there were many impressive features
included. Items such as sanitary facilities flushed by the tide and a
desalination plant which produced drinking water from the sea were available as
early as 1861. A total of 198 guns and a large supply of ammunition were on hand
to secure the fort.
In the years that followed, Fort Taylor was again used during the
Spanish-American War. In 1889, in an effort to modernize the fort, the top
levels were cut down to install newer weapons. Further remodeling also included
the addition of Battery Osceola and Battery Adair on the inside of the fort.
With the coming of the 20th century, more sophisticated weapons and eventually
radar and other devices took the place of guns. By 1947, the Army turned Fort
Taylor over to the Navy to maintain.
Beginning in 1968, through the tireless efforts of volunteers, excavations for
old armaments in the gun rooms uncovered a number of guns and ammunition from
Civil War times. This represents only a fraction of the buried arsenal, which is
the largest collection of Civil War cannons in the U.S. In recognition of this,
Fort Taylor was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Two
years later, the fort was designated a National Historic Landmark.
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