Welcome to Fort Norfolk my name is Steven Forrest, and I'm the Fort Norfolk Historian
for the Norfolk Historical Society, and I will be the one giving you your tour today of Fort Norfolk.
When you visit Fort Norfolk, you have to check in with the gate guard and show a picture ID,
before you can enter the fort. So after you've done that come down to the entrance of the fort
and you can start your tour. Let me give you a quick history of the fort. The fort was originally
constructed in 1794, when George Washington was president. But this fort was only made
of earth and wood, it had one barracks and one magazine. This fort was only manned until 1802,
when it was abandoned. Then with rising tensions between Great Britain and the
United States, the fort was built again in 1808, and this is the fort you see before you today.
Now this fort was the command post for this area, during the war of 1812. and it was manned
by the army until 1824, when Fort Norfolk was closed, because Fort Monroe had taken its place.
The navy looked at the fort in the 1850s, and decided this would be a great place to have a
Naval Magazine. So they modified the buildings, and built the large magazine in the middle of the fort,
which was the parade ground of the fort. They used this fort as a Naval Magazine to store
gun powder for the navy in this region, and also to manufacture exploding cannonballs and bullets
for their guns. Now the navy maintained the fort until the Civil War. During the Civil
War the Confederates captured the fort. Then it was used by the Confederates for a year. And then
the Union army invaded Norfolk in May of 1862 and captured Fort Norfolk. They had a different use for
the fort. The fort would be used as a Prisoner of War Camp during the civil war. After the Civil War
the navy once again used Fort Norfolk as a Naval Weapons Magazine. But as the town of Norfolk grew
the navy eventually closed the Naval Magazine, and moved the operations to Craney Island in 1875.
The fort remained with the navy, until it was turned over to the Army Corps of Engineers
in 1923, and the Army Corps of Engineers is still here at Fort Norfolk. So let's go look at the fort.
Before we enter the fort let's walk around the outside of the fort. As you can see the walls
are rather tall. So while you're inside the fort don't get too close to the edges of the walls,
because they are very old and it could be a little bit dangerous. But you can see as we walk around
the outside, two examples of the kinds of cannons that would have been on the walls of the fort.
As you walk around the wall you'll notice that the wall is made of brick. There are actually several
layers of brick behind the wall. Also you'll notice that there are light spots on the wall.
This is where the wall was repaired, because sections of the wall have collapsed in the past.
This is another reason don't get too close to the edges of the wall.
This is the sally port or the entrance to the fort.
Let's go inside through the entrance and see the fort.
The door behind me is the entrance to our dungeon. This dungeon only has one window and it's in the
sally port. As you entered the fort you saw the bars when you came in and wondered what it was.
Now let's go up the steps and see the Guard House.
This is the Guard House of the fort. The unique thing about this building
is that it has a door on each side of the building, so the
guards can walk through the building, and continue their rounds around the
fort.
This is the Cistern House. This is the building that was used to pull water out of the cistern.
See when the Navy took over the fort, they wanted a source of fresh water. So what they
did is, they built a gutter system off of all the buildings, and when it rained the gutters would
drain into this cistern. Originally this part of the wall was like the rest of the main battery,
but the Navy dug it up, and built this large cistern under the ground that they used to
collect water. When the ships would come in, they would pump the water out through the cistern house
and send it in pipes down to the waterfront, where it would fill the ships with water.
This is a good place to tell you why the fort is here. In 1794 all the ships had the guns
on the sides of the ship. But to sail at Fort Norfolk, you have to sail directly at the fort.
Therefore we can fire at you, but you cannot fire at us, as you try to enter Norfolk harbor.
Now let's go back down the steps and continue our tour of the fort.
Behind me now is the storehouse for the fort. This building was constructed in 1812.
It was originally not in the fort when it was built in 1808.
The building behind me now is the original enlisted quarters for the fort, which was
built in 1808. This building housed one company of enlisted men. Then when the Navy took over,
they used this building to manufacture the bullets for their rifles and pistols aboard the ships.
When the Army Corps took over this building became the cafeteria.
As you look carefully on this side of the building, you can see shadows of the past.
Originally this building had three doors, and two windows between each door, and a window on the
other side of the door. You can look at the brick and see where these things used to be.
The two windows you see on the side of the building right now were put in during the
Navy period. The larger windows are from the 1808 period, but they are only shadows on the wall.
This is the Carriage House of the fort. We don't know exactly when it was built,
but we do know it was built after the Civil War.
The area behind me now, was the stables at the fort this was probably to house the donkey or mule
that pulled the cart full of munitions down to the pier to load up the naval ships. This
building was built after the Civil War. Now let's walk up to the Main Battery of the fort.
First we must walk up what was the Confederate gun ramp. The reason we call it the Confederate
gun ramp is the original gun ramp had been destroyed when they built the cistern, and when the
Confederates had the fort, they had to reconstruct a gun ramp to get their guns on the wall.
Now we've arrived at the Main battery, as you can see we have a commanding view of the river.
As we walk along the Main Battery, this is not the way it would have looked in 1808.
There would have been wooden platforms here, so the guns could roll back and forth against the wall.
Originally there was a wall, and not a grassy slope. If you look at other parts of the fort wall
you will see what the wall would have looked like in 1808.
This is the Officer's Quarters, and the Officer's Quarters was used from 1808
until they abandoned the fort in 1824. And when the Navy moved into the fort they modified the
building, and used it to manufacture cannonballs to use on the warships. Like the Enlisted Barracks,
if you look carefully at this building you can see shadows of the past. Originally this
building had two stories and a basement, and you can see shadows of the original windows. Now the
Navy came in and modified the building, and you can see one Navy window in the upper left-hand corner
of the building. The other windows were built in the 1920s by the Army Corps of Engineers. If we
look here we can see the basement windows, and as we go up you can see where the original windows
where. This covered walkway that goes between the Officers Quarters and the Naval Magazine
was built in the 1850s by the Navy. This is the Naval Magazine that was completed in 1854.
This is where they stored all the gun powder for all the Naval ships in the region.
That was a lot of gun powder, and this was used by the navy until they abandoned the fort
in the late 1800s. Also during the Civil War it was used as prison cells within it.
Now walking from the entrance to the Naval Magazine to the back corner of the fort, we
are approaching the place where the original magazine from the fort was.
This is the location of the original magazine for the fort,
and behind this magazine was a well so that the men could get drinking water.
This is a good example of what the wall would have looked like around the entire fort.
You can see there is an inner wall and an outer wall, and in between a large quantity of dirt
with a slight slope leading to the river. This is the way the wall would have looked in front of the
Main Battery instead of the grassy slope that we see there now. This is the location of the
second Enlisted Barracks that was constructed in 1808. Nothing of this barracks remains.
I hope you've enjoyed the tour of Fort Norfolk, and I recommend that you watch the next video
in this series. And I am putting the playlist over here, for Fort Norfolk.
And you can subscribe to my channel over there. So until next time see ya.