Outdoors Maryland; 1409

This program has been made possible by the members of NPT. Thank you for your generous support. Coming up. Guardians Of The River the. Monument to the man who meaning it was built for war in another region. No it's the nature of history against the history of nature. Peace inside Colonel Leesburg. Outdoors Maryland is produced in cooperation with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. DENR inspired by nature. This. Week in the US.

A leisurely drive north over the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Offers some. Good. Rest. On the left. Baltimore skyline dominates the horizon. Nothing unusual there. But a glance to the right. And something else. Something of a mystery. A six sided chunk of brown stone in the middle of the Patapsco River. A peculiar landmark that's impossible to identify without taking a closer look. The island of rock turns out to be Fort Carroll. Abandoned army outpost infamous subject of local legend. Built in the 1840s

to defend Baltimore against enemy attack. It was so important to military minds of the time. That renowned Army engineer Colonel Robert E. Lee was ordered to Baltimore to build it. It was abandoned years ago and lies empty. A sleeping guardian of Baltimore's harbor. But there's renewed interest in the old war sparked by the discovery that the island is occupied by nature a fact that has bird lovers historians developers and even the state wondering what will happen to a historic fort Carol. On this wide expanse of the Patapsco near the Key Bridge the steam of heavy industry bends eastward in the river when. It's chilly for a Maryland day and then. Dave Brinker and Gymkhana both wildlife biologists with Maryland's Department

of Natural Resources are here at solar splats near the mouth of the Patapsco River to count birds. But not just any birds. They're carefully observing an extraordinary gathering of species. The water bird colony they found thriving inside of Fort Carroll. Dave Brinker were at Fort Carroll what some of us like to call the home of industrial strength parents right here in Baltimore Harbor we have a growing paranoia that has most of the species of parents meager its that nest in the state of Maryland. Now none of these are officially listed as threatened or endangered but there are these species are of conservation interest because they're on common. Which is why we track them. You start with great grades that way you know it's snowy birds look like now. You know last night I was going to let you know you're like oh my god. Over the years for Carol's been the subject of ideas ranging from the mildly

unconventional to the supreme Leo eccentric as entrepreneurs look for ways to use the abandoned fort. Now birders like Brinker and McCann believe the colony's presence is a good reason to leave the fluid alone. To just give it over to the birds. Still others want to reclaim port Harold's rich history rare architecture. Perhaps even its untapped commercial potential. Nearly eight miles up river at the offices of Baltimore developers streaker brothers ankles and rouse there's a plan to breathe new life into the fore. For Carroll from the great mysteries of the Palmer Harbor. Owner Bill strivers leading the charge. Ever since I first came to Hallmark time ago come out and play the part without them and come around it are. The city come around the. People that tell you about the rats that are. Bigger than dogs. And that.

Always the curious as to what it was. Then. Why it wasn't. In the news. One adventurous day I paddled out here with my daughter and explore and I was like wow man this is incredible. Totally cool. And clambered around in amongst the poison ivy streakers imagination was fired by the port's potential. And he leased the island with an option to buy. But no matter what he decides to do with them the board presents a special challenge. The problem you want to look at as a problem is natures trees and birds nesting in trees on an manmade island that it was of no use to man for a century or more. Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks has been following the story of Fort Carroll for 10 years. So they've kind of taken over they've kind of claimed it. I think they have squatters rights there and they have to be dealt

with. And birds are not humans you know you can't say here's a voucher for rent subsidy go someplace else now. This is a delicate this is very very interesting issue. A developer whose heart is in the right place you know a guy who does a lot of good work restoring old buildings and recycling old buildings in Baltimore and getting humans in them again to just come in with his big ideas a great big idea man builds true or is but this does pose a problem not sure he's ever faced before. What to do with the birds. A rarity in this part of the state. They nest on the island three months out of the year from spring to whirly summer. They build nests on the wisteria saplings scrub brush in poison ivy vines that in spring smother the Fort's old parade ground with the living lace of green. The island's trees can't be trimmed or cut during nesting season. They're

protected like many of the birds here by a collection of state and federal laws. They make this situation at Fort Carroll unique unique because the very trees the colony nests in are beginning to grow through the historic forts brickwork threatening to break its supporting archways. For historians and developers who want to save the For developers like St. for the birds present a quandary adding a strange twist and a sense of urgency is the potential tree damage to the historic fort. But history shows that nothing's ever been easy for Fort Kara from the start. It earned a reputation as an oddity in Baltimore's early days. A time when opportunity and geography lured a generation of entrepreneurs to lie but the water's edge. Which is where the story of Fort Carroll begins.

Tomorrow is a historian living in Baltimore Baltimore supports a lot of people talk about the fact that it's for the for in love but. What they found out early in the going was that they were 400 miles closer to the markets of the West out in the heartland. Then the rest of the courses you had to go under 50 miles up the bay to get here. But that was like these you get tried for things overlay. So it became a very attractive sort of inland ports. Today the city is starting to turn into the prototype of the modern American city. The country was was dynamic it was energetic it was inventive and was also dangerous. Dangerous because the enemy navies found Baltimore attended. Just as the British did when they sailed up the Patapsco during the War of 1812. Coursed Baltimore. Was the city that had bricks broached with the kind of thing could happen in America. You know when the Founding Fathers got together

the country together it was a big argument about how to protect the country from these giant European powers. With a sort of almost sort of with the Patapsco. And they talked about putting fortifications along the shoreline and somebody advocated Israelis 18 21 that there was just flat out there. You could certainly put a fortification out there that would control the whole channel. And since it was already a fairly shallow area they could they could put it out there without breaking the bank trying to develop a big time mystery for a horde of cation Brevik Colonel Robert E. Lee the same Robert E. Lee who later led the Confederate army against the union was ordered to build the fort first and foremost a military engineer. Lee was happy to get the assignment after his return from the Mexican War. When Robert E. Lee came to town. In 1848. He wasn't

really in mid career. And. If you were to look at picture him at that time it's not the Robert Lee that we know he was always a I guess you'd call him a straight arrow. He was very principled very very put together guy never had a temerity West Point you know which was unheard. They came to live with his whole family for a good time in his life because he spent a lot of time well measure as an officer away from his family. But he came in 1840 with his film with and I don't wait Madison Street. And right there in downtown Baltimore. And he had good friends and family here in the city so it was a good time for him. Lee's orders were simple but the job wasn't easy he was to construct a fort in the middle of the Patapsco River to replace Fort McHenry considered obsolete and prevent a repeat of the 1812 British bombardment of Baltimore. Musta been quite a scene because it's very indicative of the of the country at the time they had steam

available to them. And that's made all the difference in the world. Because it gave an opportunity. Has it not. Been able to before. They've. Got a pile driver and they took out a special kind of the saw that cut stone. And. It must have been. Quite a scene out there banging away trying to put a foundation first of all that would sink into the flats and then gradually build this very heavy superstructure on top of it. And. Not long after he had been working on this thing. Pretty much I think. Foundation finished. They put a wooden platform on top of. The stone foundation. So that they could. Actually put the rest of the structure on top of it. The design called for a three story six sided stone and brick fort with an area of about three and a half acres and watered 12 to 15 feet. Each side was two hundred forty nine feet long internally fortified with poured

cement the walls were lined with granite mined at Port Deposit Maryland and were fitted with shuttered ports for three hundred fifty cannon aimed to sink ships attacking from any direction. The main fort had dining rooms fairy quarters and powder and ammunition magazines. Other improvements included a carpentry and blacksmith shop a freshwater Well a caretaker's house. And an oil storage building. Modeled after South Carolina's Fort Sumter Fort Carroll's firepower would have been massive If it had ever been finished. But there were serious problems with it from the beginning. They were banging away up there for about four years putting putting this this fortification into the works and. Think it became a month or even every year like it always is with Congress about how much money they want to spend on making this work because it took longer than they wanted it to. It was more trouble than they wanted.

Just as Congress cut off funding for the fourth. There were more problems. First Lee was reassigned as commandant of the United States Military Academy at West Point and then engineers found that for Carroll's heavy stone foundation was sinking into the Patapsco his muddy bottom all the forts were works in progress all up and down the East Coast and they all had enormous amounts of problems but looks like Fort Carroll looking for horse last surviving side of the Declaration of Independence who was holding court in Baltimore up until the 1830s. This particular force you get most. The final straw came in April 1864 during the Civil War still unfinished but fully manned. The fort flooded during torrential rain. There was little down with Lee now gone. Congressional support for finishing the Ford lost and advancements in heavy weaponry making Fort Carroll vulnerable and virtually obsolete. Construction on its docks. It was never finished. Never saw action.

Never fired a shot. Instead it began an odd existence as a curiosity. Even within the military which could never find a productive official use for Ford Carol. There were some efforts a keeper man the lighthouse to warn ships away from the navigation hazards of Sollars flag and the fort itself. At one point soldiers dismantled one of its tiers and dumped the giant granite blocks into the Patapsco to make room for modern cannon. It later served as a base for servicing mines in Baltimore Harbor during the Spanish-American War. Was a temporary holding station for foreign seamen. And was a Coast Guard pistol range. During World War Two the army salvaged much of the forts iron equipment to help with the war effort. The Army tried to sell Ford Karolyn 1023 but there were no takers until 1958 when Baltimore attorney Benjamin Eisenberg paid $10000 for the four. Eisenberg had big plans including a full restoration of the fort with a public park a marina a restaurant and a

casino. It never panned out and his plans were abandoned. Best news. All day. Some some crackpot ideas to do something with it because it's it's out there. You see it when you cross the keep bridge you see you coming to BWI the flight path and what the world is it's appealing to you to do something with it. But nobody has yet been able to figure out exactly what ideas are still percolating. Bill Streeter is drawn to the ford by its past its shadowy twists and turns and the promise of something more. This is poison ivy over here but this is right here this is the I was that her piece of workmanship. Yes. Granite spiral stair.

OK. This is the old my ass. Well this was a. Tripod that held up a bell. Then of course the light was on the roof. These are the problem. Routes are just digging right into the masonry. The summary is that here was the. This was a parade ground. All open in those pictures from when Eisenberg had it was nicely mowed grass. And he had a. Fake cannon that there you know all this is simply stuff that grew up when the place was abandoned. These were all cannons for a brief point of time.

Canning came in and now it's the soldiers who were manning their POWs. Would have to be able to do their business from time to time. And one of the great. Inventions of for Carol is the title the train that has a kind of a hook at the entrance so that you can swim in and out in only at high tide the water would come up over the you know the bump in the tunnel and come into this trench here and you know guys would do their thing and water would come and flush it out twice a day and you'd have this nice sweet. I know that but I think they have a twist in the hallway so

that I know to protect the gum pattern so that it would be very difficult for and I guess they had the slits for ventilation. Of this workman that. What its future could be. It's a great place for imagination and it's a great place to enjoy the ballet in. And. I marvel at the feat of engineering and that and craftsmanship and that and enjoy this and a coming together of nature and thank kind of. Nature nearly as rare as the history it occupies. There isn't a colony like it around for more than a hundred miles. Its presence is signaled by the constant squawking of a thousand birds flying beating roosting

to brink around McCann walking through the cavernous gateway into the forest tangle of spring foliage is like entering a lost world. They bring her. When I played over and there were a few there's a predator working on them. And it shows there's a Colonial Defense you know everybody is going to say we want to drive this perceived threat away. And the best way they can do that is swooping down on you and trying to. Scare you. These birds have a unique nesting behavior where they create their own little cities that biologists call colonies. And because they nest in these dense concentrations they are a kind of void predators and they look for predator free environment. In Maryland that's usually an island. And as far as they're concerned this whole fort is simply an island that's got enough vegetation structure on it that they can build nests.

And more importantly it has little or no predators out here. Without raising their head. You're going. To have a classic like oh my home that. The couple took from it. They don't need any particular species of tree or shrub they just need something that's got enough complexity and branches so that now they can cram a lot of nasty into a small space. Once the chicks hatch the adults you know have to make feeding trips and they'll bring their small fish and. Regurgitate that food for the chicks and it takes them about a month to six weeks to get the chicks to the point where they're ready to flags and go out on their own you know the island here itself is probably occupied for about two and a half months in the summer because not everybody

starts raising their young. The same time that history year started over next to the base of the Key Bridge by the toll facility in that there was a wet shrubby area there that black on white herrings colonise. And that county grew and got to the point of being about 100 150 pairs. And other species started coming in. First we had a couple snowy roads and then we added a great great thing that has more species came in at some point and dynamic there changed for whatever reason. And that this social group that made up that how you realized that fort Carol was here what Carol had been had no water but music. Point. And in one spring they moved en masse they vacated what we called the Key Bridge so I came out here and now we've been here for about five years and. We now have just about every species of having a great nationality.

The bulk of Maryland's nesting herons and Hugh Grants are down in Somerset County in Worcester County. So you're going almost to you know the far reaches of Maryland to find anything like what we have right here in the foothills. These birds feed relatively high on the food chain. They're eating the fish that ate the smaller fish that ate the plankton. And that makes some good bio indicators of the health of our environment. He came to Baltimore Harbor when my father was young and worked with Beth Steel You can have these He's nesting here the harbor was a lot dirtier the food chain was a lot more corrupt than it is now with all the efforts to clean up the environment clean up the harbor. We had better water where we used to we had better forage fish and so the birds can survive during as a living here. If it's a good indication of the fact that these birds are bio indicators That's why we track them.

Moving into Baltimore Harbor is a good thing for the state. As for Carroll's legion of birds continue to lay claim to the Iman. Their presence invites the decisive question. In the end. Will it be history or nature that reclaims this place feel streaker. My big concern right now is. Fear in a way to preserve the structure it's just. A gorgeous piece of. Craftsmanship. With the trees growing out of the roof. The Roots eventually will break the structure of the arches and once that happens then the whole thing will tumble down. For Dave Brinker the choice is a simple one. If a development proposal changed the character of Fort Carroll now these birds are going to have a difficult time finding another site to nest up in this part of the day. North of the Bay Bridge you don't have a lot of small predator

free islands with trees and shrubs on. So really it's very essential for these birds if we want to make the choice to keep them here. If we decide that they're not valuable. And we. Put something else out here they're going to go somewhere else we'll go to Delaware or we're going to southern Maryland. But they probably won't end up in this part of the bay. You.

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