Fort Knox, Maine

Fort Knox is an interesting place.  It was built to protect the Penobscot Narrows.  Twice the British occupied the Fort--once in the Revolutionary War and once during the War of 1812.  

The Fort is built of granite--the first and largest built in Maine--and includes an area(called a dry moat) where, if enemy troops get over the first wall, they enter a free-fire zone where troops within the Fort can fire from protected positions from both sides of the moat.  

This Fort was continually under-funded:  they'd ask for an appropriation for guns and get much less than they asked for.  Consequently, the many cannon positions both inside and outside the Fort were never armed.  The Fort has mounts for 135 cannons although no more than 74 were brought to the site.

The engineering marvel of this Fort is the two circular staircases.  These show virtually no sign of wear, no evidence of tilting or leaning in spite of the fact that they were built about 200 years ago.

The cannon you see pictured is an example of the largest guns at the Fort.  They were positioned both inside and outside of the Fort.  The cannon pictured here swiveled on an iron plate to provide a full field of fire through the cannon slit plus the cannon mount provided for elevation adjustments.