Video
Fort Jefferson Stabilization Project
Transcript
Generally speaking, the park service is really happy with all the work that has been done from year one now through year four. This is our final year. It has been a journey of learning and constant improvement and really trying to address every issue that we come across. It was not until we received the ARRA money that we were finally able to thoroughly address all of the issues going on within the scarp wall of Fort Jefferson to correctly stabilize this structure the way it needs to be done. So, without doing the stabilization work, we are really in danger of losing significant areas of the superstructure of Fort Jefferson which is a main feature of the Dry Tortugas National Park. It is an unaltered third-system fortification in an amazing location coupled with phenomenal natural resources. And, it really is just an incredible place for people to come and spend the day and really get a nice view of what it was like in the 1870s at the Dry Tortugas. Fort Jefferson is an unreinforced masonry structure. So, this is entirely built out of coral concrete and bricks. I am a mason by trade. I have been in the trade for about twenty years. This is Fort Jefferson, the second largest masonry structure in the world. The only thing that beats this is the Great Wall of China. I have been talking about this place for ten years to my wife. It is just really an honor to work here. You just look out and you just see beauty everywhere you look. It is like no other job I have ever worked on. You can be having a bad day and you just turn around and look out and it just makes it so much better. Seeing the ocean, the sky, all the wildlife, pretty cool. Well, what we have here is this is one of the original iron totten shutter assemblies. These are impressive massive armaments that are a key identifying historical feature of Fort Jefferson. Basically, this was armor for this opening. And, inside here is a gun casemate. And, everyone of these openings on Fort Jefferson would have had a cannon. And, the totten shutter assembly was designed in a way that the doors would fly open as the cannon was fired and then they would instantly recoil shut. And, the pins would lock down into a locking mechanism which would provide almost instantaneous protection for our men that were inside the gun casemate firing the guns. This was huge in order to protect our men that were firing these cannons. Over its service life, over the past 150 years in this extreme marine environment, you can see that these iron totten shutters have clearly expanded. They have created these massive jacking of the brick wall or the scarp wall. And, this is sort of the essence of our stabilization efforts. And, we need to remove these totten shutter assemblies and then we are going to rebuild these embrasure openings. This next embrasure is one step further along in that demolition and rebuild process. So, again, here you can see all of the original shutter components have been removed. This area has been cleared off. We are prepared to rebuild an infill arch. And, what you are seeing here is for tie backs. So, they have cut these holes in which they will actually tie back the new arch construction into this existing solid substructure that they have now gotten to. The infill arch will get reconstructed here. We will put in replicated shutter components. And then the embrasure will get reconstructed in front of that. They were masters, you know, they were master carpenters and masons. Just the form work to build all of these arches… You know, today, I have built many, many, many arches in this trade, but not like this. Not these giant structural arches, it is incredible. I learned that I have a lot to learn. Well, I had been unemployed for about five months. I was getting desperate, I had all of my feelers out. I was looking at the paper, there were no jobs in the paper. I called every mason contractor in Miami and I was looking at other trades to make a living. And, I read an article in the paper one day about how our stimulus money has been put into action. And, there was a large allotment, I believe seven million dollars to restore Fort Jefferson. So, I got on the computer and I searched and searched and searched. I could not find the contractor. So, finally I contacted the National Park Service and they put me in touch with the Southeastern Regional office. And then they gave me the name of Enola, the contractor on this job. One of the best jobs I have ever been on in my life. It is an honor to be here. I think it is great, you know, putting people to work. You know, not only us brick layers, there is other vendors that are involved, the barge operator, the people that supply our supplies from Key West. It is not just us. There is a lot of people that have benefitted from this stimulus. One of the issues that we come across a lot of times is the amount of money that is being spent on stabilizing Fort Jefferson and is it worth it or is it not. And, I really think that there is a really strong case for: Yeah, it is absolutely worth it. I mean here is this incredible structure in an incredible location that held so much historic significance on many levels. It is an amazing cultural resource and it is coupled with some phenomenal natural resources. And, it is very important that we continue this process and preserve Fort Jefferson.
Descriptive Transcript
Description Narrator: A bird stands on the top of the Fort’s sea wall. Waves crash over the wall.
Text: Fort Jefferson was built between 1846 and 1875 to protect the nation’s gateway to the Gulf of Mexico.
First set aside as Fort Jefferson National Monument in 1935, the monument was expanded and renamed Dry Tortugas National Park in 1992.
Dry Tortugas National Park was established to protect the wealth of natural and cultural resources within its boundaries, including Fort Jefferson.
Fort Jefferson Stabilization Project, Dry Tortugas National Park. Funded by the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
Aerial footage of the Fort from a distance. Close-up footage of the Fort walls, beach, and moat. Kelly Clark, Exhibit Specialist.
Kelly Clark: Generally speaking, the park service is really happy with all the work that's been done from year one now through year four, this is our final year. It's been a journey of learning and constant improvement and really trying to address every issue that we come across. It wasn't until we received the ARRA money that we were finally able to thoroughly address all of the issues going on within the scarp wall of Fort Jefferson to correctly stabilize this structure the way it needs to be done.
Description Narrator: A sign reads: U.S. Department of the Interior. Your Recovery Dollars at Work. www.recovery.gov.
Dry Tortugas National Park. Recovery Act Program, National Park Service.
Preserve Fort Jefferson Phase 2.
A portion of the sign reads: This project will stabilize Historic Fort Jefferson, the primary cultural feature of Dry Tortugas National Park. The deteriorative effects of time, the harsh environment in which it is located and specifically the corrosion and expansion of original iron elements embedded within the fort’s masonry structure, have resulted in significant loss of the protective brick veneer. A phased approach to implement stabilization strategies has been instituted. The work includes selected demolition of masonry to remove the iron Totten Shutters and armor blocks and associated repair and repointing of the masonry…
Kelly Clark: So, without doing the stabilization work, we are really in danger of losing significant areas of the superstructure of Fort Jefferson, which is a main feature of the Dry Tortugas National Park. It's a unaltered third system fortification in an amazing location coupled with phenomenal natural resources. And it's really just an incredible place for people to come and spend a day and really get a nice view of what it was like in the 1870s at the Dry Tortugas.
Description Narrator: Footage of visitors along the fort walls and fish swimming around a coral reef. Visitors at the front entrance of the fort.
A sign reads: Fort Jefferson, Dry Tortugas National Park. National Park Service logo.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Kelly Clark: Fort Jefferson is an unreinforced masonry structure. So, this is entirely built out of coral, concrete, and bricks.
Howard Colvin: I'm a mason by trade. I've been in the trade for about 20 years. This is Fort Jefferson, the second largest masonry structure in the world.
Description Narrator: Howard Colvin, a mason working on the fort’s restoration.
Howard Colvin: The only thing that beats this is the Great Wall of China. I've been talking about this place for ten years to my wife. It's just really an honor to work here.
Description Narrator: James Sellers, another mason working on the fort’s restoration.
James Sellers: You just look out and you just see beauty everywhere you look, and it's like no other job I've ever worked on, you know. Could be having a bad day, you just turn around and look at…and it just makes it so much better. Seeing the ocean, the sky, and all the wildlife and... Pretty cool.
Kelly Clark: Well, what we have here is this is one of the original iron Totten Shutter assemblies. These are impressive, massive armaments that are a key identifying historical feature of Fort Jefferson. Basically, this was armor for this opening and inside here is a gun casemate. And every one of these openings on Fort Jefferson would have had a cannon, and the Totten Shutter assembly was designed in a way that the doors would fly open as the cannon was fired, and then they would instantly recoil shut, and the pins would lock down into a locking mechanism, which would provide almost instantaneous protection for our men that were inside the gun casemate firing the guns. This was huge in order to protect our men that were firing these cannons.
Description Narrator: Kelly Clark stands in front of a square opening in the Fort. A blueprint of the Totten Shutter Assembly shows the breastplate being attached over the shutter assembly, which is inserted into a brick wall. A black-and-white photograph of a canon in a casemate. A gun leans up against the canon and a cannonball sits on the ground. Footage of broken pieces of the Fort walls in the surrounding waters.
Kelly Clark: Over its service life, over the past hundred and 50 years, in this extreme marine environment, you can see that these iron Totten Shutters have clearly expanded. They've created these massive jacking of the brick wall or the scarp wall. And this is sort of the essence of our stabilization efforts, and we need to remove these Totten Shutter assemblies, and then we're going to rebuild these embrasure openings.
Description Narrator: A worker breaks bricks away from around the embrasure openings with a small jackhammer.
Kelly Clark stands on scaffolding in front of small square openings in a wall of the Fort.
Kelly Clark: This next embrasure is one step further along in that demolition and rebuild process. So again, here you can see all of the original shutter components have been removed. This area has been cleared off. We're prepared to rebuild an infill arch. And what you're seeing here is for tie backs. So, they've cut these holes in which they will actually tie back the new arch construction into this existing solid substructure that they've now gotten to. The infill arch will get reconstructed here. We will put in replicated shutter components and then the embrasure will get reconstructed in front of that.
Howard Colvin: They were masters, you know, they were master carpenters and masons. Just the form work to build all these arches... You know, today, I've built many, many, many arches in this trade, but not like this. Not these giant structural arches, you know, it's incredible. I learned I have a lot to learn.
Description Narrator: Scaffolding spans a portion of the wall lined with arches along the top.
Two masons lay bricks into a wall.
Howard Colvin: Well, I'd been unemployed for about five months. I was getting desperate. I had all of my feelers out. I was looking at the paper, there were no jobs in the paper. I called every mason contractor in Miami, and I was looking at other trades to make a living. And I read an article in the paper one day about how our stimulus money has been put into action and there was a large allotment, I believe, $7 million to restore Fort Jefferson.
So, I got on the computer, and I searched and searched and searched. I couldn't find the contractor. So finally, I contacted the National Park Service. They put me in touch with the Southeastern Regional Office, and then they gave me the name of Enola, the contractor on this job. One of the best jobs I've ever been on in my life. It's an honor to be here.
James Sellers: I think it's great, you know, putting people to work. You know, not only us bricklayers, there's other vendors that are involved: the barge operator, the people that supply our supplies from Key West, and it's not just us. There's a lot of people that have benefited from this stimulus.
Description Narrator: Footage of the Fort from ground level. The ocean and a moat surrounds the Fort.
Kelly Clark: One of the issues that we come across a lot of times is the amount of money that's being spent on stabilizing Fort Jefferson. And is it worth it or is it not? And I really think there is a really strong case for, yeah, it is absolutely worth it.
Description Narrator: Kelly stands on top of the Fort’s wall. Tourists in the background look out into the distance.
Kelly Clark: I mean, here is this incredible structure in an incredible location that held so much historic significance on many levels. It's an…it's an amazing cultural resource, and it's coupled with some phenomenal natural resources, and it's very important that we continue this process and preserve Fort Jefferson.
Description Narrator: Visitors walk to the top of a hill to take photos overlooking the fort and the surrounding area.
U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Everglades National Park. National Park Service logo.
Dry Tortugas National Park Video.
Featuring: Exhibit Specialist Kelly Clark, James Sellers, Howard Colvin.
Producer, Director, Editor: Jennifer Brown.
Executive Producers: Allyson Gantt, Alan Scott, and Linda Friar.
Underwater Footage Courtesy of: Brett Seymour, NPS Submerged Resources Center.
Special Thanks: Dry Tortugas National Park Staff.
Description
Video about the process to stabilize Fort Jefferson and why this is important. This project is funded by the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
Duration
6 minutes, 59 seconds
Credit
NPS video by Jennifer Brown
Date Created
03/22/2011
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