Fort Taylor

“Fort Taylor, Key West, Fla. Key West, the most western of the Pine Islands, is about sixty miles southwest of Cape Sable, Florida. Its length is four miles, and its width is one mile. Its elevation from the sea does not exceed twenty feet. Its formation is of coral. The name is a corruption of Cago Hueso, or Bone Key, and has no relation to the position of the island, which is not the most western of the reef. On Whitehead’s Point, the southwest extemity of the island, is a fixed light, eighty-three and a half feet above the level of the sea. Fort Taylor is a large, first-class fortification, commanding the harbor of Key West at its entrance. The foritication forms an irregular quadrangle, having three channel curtains. It is three hundred yards off the beach and on the southwest point of the island, and stands in a depth of seven or twelve feet of water. The foundation is granite, and the upper works are of brick. The scrap walls have a solidity of eight feet, rising forty feet above the water level. It is proyided with three tiers- two of casemate and one of barbette- and mounts one hundred and twenty-eight 10-inch Columbiad guns on the seaward front, and forty-five heavy pieces toward the beach."— Frank Leslie, 1896

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