Bunkers at Fort Worden, Washington
February 2000
One Saturday, I drove up to Seattle to visit my friends Chad and Angie. Chad and his friend Ty took me out to Port Townsend, Washington to see the bunkers at Fort Worden. It was a cold, gloomy, overcast day, with rain off and on, but we had a good time.
Fort Worden was named after Admiral John Worden, commander of the famous Civil War ironclad Monitor. In the late 1800’s, wooden ships were quickly being replaced by steam-powered ironclads. Concerns about an attack from such vessels led the United States to establish coastal forts at major harbors on the east and west coasts. Between 1897 and 1911, Fort Casey, Fort Flagler, and Fort Worden were built at the entrance to Puget Sound, primarily to protect the naval shipyard at Bremerton. This so-called “triangle of death” featured state-of-the art weapons and fortifications.
The largest and most sophisticated weapons at Fort Worden were 12-inch cannons mounted on disappearing carriages. When the guns were ready to fire, they would be raised up above the bunker walls. The recoil of firing would push the gun back down below for reloading. Sort of an early attempt at “stealth” technology. With an experienced crew, the guns were surprisingly accurate; in practice sessions they could hit the smokestack of a moving target seven miles out to sea.
Despite all this technology, the batteries became obsolete almost as soon as they were finished, as battleships were being developed with even longer-range and more accurate guns. During World War I, most of the guns and mortars at Fort Worden were sent to Europe. During World War II, aircraft and submarines made the big guns even less viable, but the fort monitored sonar and radar devices, as every port on the West Coast was considered under threat from the Japanese.
The fort was decomissioned in 1953, but naval activities continued through the late 1960’s. The fort became a juvenile detention center, until 1971. The park then opened in 1973. In 1981, the turn-of-the-century barracks and other buildings served as the location for An Officer and a Gentleman. (Sorry I don’t have any photographs of the actual fort itself.)
We headed back to Seattle via the Bainbridge Island ferry. A rare treat on such a winter’s day was a brief appearance of Mount Rainier.
Seattle