Fort Pickens Tour: Stop 6

Fort Pickens Powder Magazine

Quick Facts

Location:

Fort Pickens, Florida

Amenities

1 listed

Trailhead

Powder Magazine

Engineers designed Fort Pickens to hold 205 cannon. To fire cannon, soldiers needed gun powder. This small doorway opens into the only remaining powder magazine.

Fort Pickens originally had three powder magazines. The magazines were lined with wood to help keep gun powder dry. Anyone who entered a magazine had to remove their shoes or put socks over them to prevent sparks.

This is because the soles of shoes were sometimes attached with nails. Fort Pickens’ three magazines could hold more than 272,000 pounds of powder. This large quantity allowed soldiers to defend the fort during a long siege.