Day 6 - Savannah and beyond - A Two Lane Adventure

Friday 15 March 2019

Today was a free day to take in more sights in the area. Our day started with a Yankee Continental Breakfast in the clubhouse.

There are different areas people are heading to today. Some are going back to downtown Savannah, others are venturing out to Tybee Island and some are enjoying a down day. We will get together tonight to talk about what you did, who you met and talked to.

Sandy & Paul and Charlie & I headed toward Tybee Island. We decided to head to our furthest point first and went to the Tybee Island Lighthouse, which is Georgia’s Oldest and Tallest. It is a complete light station with history that dates back to 1736.

The tower stands 145 feet tall and has three Light Keeper's Cottages nearby. A small 1812 Summer Kitchen holds archaeological finds. Rebuilt several times the current Lighthouse displays its 1916 day mark with 178 steps and a First Order Fresnel Lens. It is actually the forth lighthouse built in the area.

The Tybee Island Light Station is one of America's most intact light station having all of its historic support buildings on its three-acre site.

Work began on the first day-mark (a lighthouse without a light) built on Tybee in 1736. Standing ninety feet tall, it was the tallest structure of its kind in America at that time. Unfortunately, storms took their toll on Tybee’s first day-mark, a storm swept the day-mark away in August 1741. ​In 1742, the second day-mark built on Tybee was completed. It stood ninety-four feet with a flagstaff which ran from the nave to the top of the beacon. Unfortunately, the sea started to encroach, reaching the very door of the day-mark. In 1768, with the sea lapping at the foundation of the day-mark it too fell victim to the sea.

The Georgia Assembly authorized a new day-mark/lighthouse to be built. This time a site well removed from the sea was chosen and the building was completed in early 1773. The day-mark/lighthouse was ceded to the Federal Government from the colony of Georgia in 1790.

The United States Lighthouse Establishment then took over the operation of the day-mark turning it into a lighthouse and in 1791, the 100 foot tall brick and wood structure was lit with spermaceti candles for the first time. In 1861, the wooden stairs and the top 40 feet of the tower were destroyed during the Civil War when Confederate troops, retreating to Fort Pulaski, set fire to the tower in order to prevent the Union troops from using it to guide their ships into port.

The second light keeper’s house is set up as a media center and we watched a very informative movie about the lighthouse. One of the young daughters of the lighthouse keeper is now an elderly woman and she shared her memories of living at the lighthouse on a mostly uninhabited Tybee Island.

At the movie, we met up with a few more Yankee Rally Goers. After the movie, we caught Donna and Becky at the top of the lighthouse.

The family of the longest serving lighthouse keeper donated many of their household items back to the foundation to be placed back into the home she grew up in. Here is the kitchen of the main light keeper’s house.

We walked across the street to the 1899 Military Battery Garland that houses the Tybee Island Museum. Exhibits cover the time of the Euchee tribe, the history of Fort Screven, Tybee's Golden Era and more.

The Tybee Island Museum is housed in a historic Endicott Period Battery, which was built as a part of Fort Screven during the Spanish-American War in 1899.​ We were lucky enough to have a very informative and knowledgeable docent.

​

Fort Screven was built as the first line of defense for one of the US largest ports. There are six Endicott style batteries that line the northern end of Tybee Island and the Savannah River. The seventh, Battery Hambright, is near Fort Pulaski. The batteries were started in 1897 and finished in 1905. The sand would form into large dunes to disguise the batteries from the ocean side as well as absorb a direct hit from the enemy. By the end of WWI, the invention of aerial warfare, the Endicott Batteries were no longer practical since they were difficult to disguise from above.

By the 1930’s Tybee Islands rapid growth was starting to stall. The Tybee Road had essentially ended the need for people to travel to Tybee by train. It also ended the need for bath houses, since beach goers no longer needed to dry off and change before boarding the train. The pavilions fell out of favor, as people packed a picnic lunch and ate on the beach or in their car. Coupled with the aggressive campaign by Florida to bring winter visitors further south, Tybee Island became less desirable as a vacation destination. Although it was relocated several times, the Tybee Island Amusement Park operated from the turn of the century until 1998.

We enjoyed a quick lunch at Lighthouse Pizza, yes we just had pizza … but Paul and Charlie could eat pizza every day! Sandy and I had salads! It was all delicious! They make our pizzas with our own "Authentic Tybee Dough." We tried to get the recipe, but no luck!

We stopped at Fort Pulaski, it is part of the Third Defense System. It refers to 19th century military architecture in the US. Fort Pulaski National Monument is one of the best preserved forts in this defense system. Fort Jefferson, in the Dry Tortugas, is part of this system, but not as well preserved. Shoreline defense was fragmented and weak when the British burned the nation's capital during the War of 1812. At the time coastal defenses were composed of a haphazard assortment of batteries and outposts. In response to lessons learned in the War of 1812, a new coastal defense system was designed. This new defense system was an attempt to protect critical United States shorelines.

By the early 1820s, the bustling port of Savannah, Georgia was in need of a larger river fortification. Preparations on what would become Fort Pulaski began in 1827. Upon graduation from West Point, Lt. Robert E. Lee, the future Confederate general, was in charge of designing the series of canals and earthworks that drained excess water from Cockspur Island, site of construction located slightly east of Savannah, Georgia. This step was necessary to provide an adequate foundation for fort construction. During the American Civil War, Lee inspected the site and noticed the dike system had worked as planned. Land maps dated the year of the siege, 1862, show the area inside the dike as the only dry expanse of land.

The completed two tier structure is a truncated hexagon that faces east. Included is a demilune, moat, two powder magazines, and a parade ground about the size of a football field. Local brownish "Savannah Gray" brick is found in the lower walls. The rose red brick is from Baltimore, Maryland, and Alexandria, Virginia. The latter is harder than the "Savannah Grays" so is used in the arches and embrasures.

In 1848, a year after fort construction, the 13,463 persons living in Savannah felt safe from foreign invasion. Fort Pulaski is one in a series of forts that protected the nation's shores and kept military powers such as England and Spain at bay. Ironically, it would not be until the American Civil War that the fort would see action.

If we weren’t so tired from climbing all the steps at the lighthouse, we could have explored more … but the fort was up and down stairs to get into and out of bunkers and along the cannon lines. We were ready to relax!

A true vision of patriotism is an American flag flies on the scenic drive to Tybee Island. People say this flag is an important landmark, one that has been there for two decades. Some people passing by say it's a beautiful notion, some say a great patriotic addition. I have to agree! It is a simple American flag lodged in a piece of driftwood.

We enjoyed a Yankee Entrée Dinner of chicken from Zaxby’s and side dishes created by rally goers! Some of the ladies prepped the corned beef and cabbage for our crockpots that will cook while we are at the parade tomorrow. Naturally, we had a campfire!

Tomorrow the Adventure Continues!