Fort Knox and Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory

So on Tuesday the 9th, I ended up going to Fort Knox and the Penobscot Narrows Bridge and Observatory. I picked a select few photos out of my collection to share, since 100+ photos is a lot more than a simple post like this needs :D

(for size comparison, that’s a tractor trailer carrying an excavator across the bridge)

Anyway first off I hit the observatory at the Penobscot Narrows Bridge. I ended up talking to one of the people working at the tower, and if I remember correctly, it’s one of only three cable bridge observatories in the world (or it’s the third tallest, but I think it’s only one in three. I can look it up later). The other two are in Asia (I think Thailand and China, but I’m probably wrong). It is the only one in the western hemisphere. There was also a handy little diagram showing how large it is in comparison to other structures in the US, which was pretty awesome.

They don’t offer to let you use the stairs, likely because the 420 foot ascent is a bit too much for most people, and the elevator is a lot faster. It travels at 500 feet per minute, so it takes 52 seconds to get from the ground floor to the second. Then the doors open up to a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the river and trees. As soon as those doors opened, there was this feeling of vertigo as the world seemed to shift and then right itself (my ears also popped going up and down the elevator).

It was kind of unreal.

After you step off the elevator, you have to climb three sets of stairs to get to the actual top of the observatory, where there are windows everywhere and boards that tell you what you can see in the distance. (I also met a geocacher up there after she saw a travelbug on my bag! That was really cool. Ms. Toastmaster’s granddaughter, Greeneyez08. First geocacher I’ve ever met).

Both of the towers on the bridge have a bright red light that flashes, probably to alert planes that there’s a giant bridge there. You can also still see where the original bridge ran across – it was a lot lower, and a lot less stylish. Back in ’03, they had planned to repair the old bridge, but because of rust issues it was deemed irreparable and instead they got the Penobscot Monstrosity (in Prospect, Maine. Go figure. Also, I finally had to add Penobscot to my computer’s dictionary. Ugh, those red lines are annoying).

After the observatory, we went to Fort Knox. It’s part of the same state park, and you can see it from the observatory (kinda. It’s underground-ish).

We took the car back to the fort, because it’s not that far, but it was still a bit hot out. Right before the gift shop and the entrance to the fort is a cannon and a huge piece of granite with the name on it.

I didn’t get any good pictures of the gift shop, but I’ll get them the next time I go through. Instead I have some pictures of different parts of the fort (including some awesome shots from the interior. There are quite a few tunnels to explore).

I have a postcard with a beautiful picture of the fort, but until I scan that I’ll just leave this image here to show what it looks like from the water.

The fort has A and B battery. They’re along the river (B battery is above the trees on the higher ground, in the image below), and there are tunnels in the hills that lead down to the batteries below.

A lot of the fort doesn’t have lighting installed, so you have to use flashlights. I brought an LED flashlight with me, which helped a LOT with pictures in the tunnels when I used it with the camera flash. (The stairs above lead to A Battery; the images below are of B Battery, as I rounded the corner from A Battery).

Then you can go into the tunnels. I used a flashlight in addition to my camera flash with these pictures; it’s incredibly dark down there, and the first picture is of a single room that was pitch black.

Then we got to the interior yard at the Fort, which had some rooms off it. I didn’t get pictures of the rooms with the restored bunks, sadly.