Fort Pulaski

There are odd little conversations that you can get into in public places with complete strangers. I have these a lot, particularly in airports. When you're flying nowadays, there is a lot of waiting in lines and a lot of sitting around, stuck with a group of people. When you’re in the company of people that long, you tend to seek allies. It’s an instinctual social thing.

At Miami International, the line to the security checkpoints is a very fungible thing, with tendrils snaking off everywhere. The guy behind me and I trivially commented on how we couldn’t tell where the line was. This was an international airport, after all. You’d think they could put up some ropes? Turns out we were from opposite ends of Georgia. I remarked on Fort Pulaski and he remarked on the efficiency of Atlanta’s airport. Then we drifted apart. In that time, we acted like friends, helping each other to move efficiently through the crowd and getting up to the checkpoint. Talking about this fort helped me make my flight.

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Anyhow, this is Fort Pulaski, located in the middle of Savannah harbor: it is a mid-1800s U.S. fort built according to the latest thinking on forts at the time. It was finished in 1847 and the Confederates took it over no problem. However, its design proved obsolete when Union troops were able to demolish it from a safe distance using rifled artillery. It was swiftly decommissioned postwar.

The pentagonal red brick fort features an attractive triangular demilune behind the fort as well as a moat with crocodiles in it. Sometimes there are 4-pounder cannon demonstrations. It is the ideal place to bring a small dorky child.