40 Abandoned Military Bases That Will Leave You Speechless - the Brofessional

Fort McHenry was poorly located to defend Baltimore Harbor. Indeed, the attack there by the British in 1814 was a mere diversion to cover the advance of British troops on the city who had offloaded at Sparrows Point and were marching up the narrow neck between the Patapsco and Back Rivers. To better defend the city, a fort was built on the south shore of the Patapsco River, but the river was too wide for canon shot to reach an enemy ship hugging the opposite shore. The fort's actual purpose was to defend and supply a battery built on a rocky island about a half mile off shore. A tunnel was dug under the river bed to connect the fort and the battery. Unfortunately, the tunnel was dug through soft bottom and kept collapsing. A pair of brass doors at each end were intended to hold back the waters until the tunnel could be rebuilt. We found this fort abandoned after it served temporarily as a Nike missile site in the 1950's. We could crawl down shafts (the wooden ladders had long since rotted away and reach the brass doors at the magazine level. Sorry, I don't know the fort's name or more about its history.