To Protect

Our first stop in D.C. was Fort Foote. It was just a tiny community park but it had these two massive cannons that Jess decided to play around on. Fort Foote originally composed a portion of the wartime defenses of Washington, D.C., by helping defend the Potomac River approach to the city. It operated from 1863 to 1878, when the post was abandoned, and was used only briefly during the First and Second World Wars.

Right down the road from Fort Foote was Fort Washington. I really loved this place. I thought it would be similar to Fort Foote but it was huge! I've been to a lot of forts and they all start to look the same after a while but this one was really cool because of the variety of different buildings that were there. At this point in the day it was closing in on 90 degrees in the blazing sunshine and Jess was suffering so bad that she bought a freakin bonnet at the gift shop. I’m pretty sure that’s the only time an adult has purchased one of those bonnets. Fort Washington was for many decades the only defensive fort protecting Washington D.C. During the War of 1812, the fort was destroyed by its own garrison during a British advance to prevent it from being captured and occupied by the British. Kind of cutting off your nose to spite your face I think. I had no idea it was such a big place. There’s even a moat and a drawbridge! Did you know that Fort Washington is the only permanent fortification built to defend the river approach to the Nation's Capital? We explored many of the buildings and climbed all over the Fort until the heat got the better of us.

Visitor Center:

Officer's Quarters:

More quarters:

Looking out to sea (well the Potomac):

I think what I liked most about Fort Washington was the fact that no one else was there so we had free rein to explore. This place was pretty big and had tons of rooms to check out. It's always nice to have free rein at a National Park site.