File:Fort Popham (10136684416).jpg

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This fort is located on a point a mile or so north of a popular summer destination--Popham Beach State Park--that has a very nice sand beach. The Kennebec River flows past the fort out to sea. The state capitol, Augusta, is up river and ocean tides reach that far up river.

Fort Popham is a coastal defense land battery at the mouth of the Kennebec River in Phippsburg, Maine. It is located in sight of the short-lived Popham Colony and, like the colony, named for George Popham, the colony's leader. During the American Revolution a minor fortification stood on this site; in 1808 the federal government built a small battery derisively known as an "embargo fort" on this location as part of the second system of fortifications that guarded the coast. It remained manned until 1815 and saw minor action during the War of 1812.

Construction of Fort Popham was authorized in 1857 but did not begin until 1861. The fort was built from granite blocks quarried on nearby Fox and Dix islands. It had a 30-foot (9 m)-high wall facing the mouth of the Kennebec River and was built in a crescent shape, measuring approximately 500 feet (150 m) in circumference.

Fort Popham's armament consisted of 36 Rodman gun and some 10 inch Parrott rifle arranged in two tiers of vaulted casements.One of the Rodman gun was donated to the town of Bowdoinham to remember its soldiers who died in the civil war.The cannon is still there.A single Parrott rifle sits near the fort grounds. The back side of Fort Popham was built with a low moated curtain containing a central gate and 20 musket ports.

In 1869 construction at Fort Popham stopped before the fortification was completed. The fort was garrisoned again after additional work was performed during the Spanish-American War and World War I. Construction of Fort Baldwin on the headland above Fort Popham began in 1905 with longer-range guns, which eventually rendered Fort Popham obsolete. (Wikipedia)
Date Taken on 27 September 2013, 15:56
Source Fort Popham
Author Paul VanDerWerf from Brunswick, Maine, USA

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This image was originally posted to Flickr by Me in ME at https://flickr.com/photos/12357841@N02/10136684416 (archive). It was reviewed on 11 July 2018 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

11 July 2018

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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current21:42, 11 July 2018Thumbnail for version as of 21:42, 11 July 20184,368 × 2,912 (5.21 MB)Hiàn (alt) (talk | contribs)Transferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons

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