Play It Safe, Stay Off Fort Fisher's "Rocks"-- Part 2

"The Rocks" is a man-made rock jetty crossing the former channel of New Inlet from the tip of Federal Point (Confederate Point during the war).  It was Fort Fisher's job to protect blockade runners using it and to keep the Union ships at bay.

It is topped by aging concrete and is a favorite site for fishermen, locals, tourists and crabbers.  However, in many places there are gaping holes revealing the rocks and further out the concrete topping gives way to sharp-edged algae covered rocks.  Very slippery and dangerous.

Rising tides periodically strand walkers on it.

I haven't been a long distance on it, but the part near the shore has those gaping holes.

--Old B-Runner

Play It Safe, Stay Off the Fort Fisher Rocks-- Part 1

From the May 7, 2017, Wilmington (NC) Star-News.

A March 25, 2017, editorial in the paper stated "Fort Fisher's "The Rocks" are now safe."

This headline came about after the North Carolina General Assembly voted down a bill to open them.

So, "The Rocks:" are safe, but walking on them is not so safe.

They were built in 1870 by the Army Corps of Engineers and closed New Inlet, a favorite Civil War blockade runner route, to keep out sand sifting into the Cape Fear River.  The head of the construction was Henry Bacon, father  of the Henry Bacon who designed and built the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C..

--Old B-Runner

Fort Fisher's "Rocks"-- Part 2: Stone Barges Used to Create Jetty

In the late 1800s, however, dredging equipment big enough to handle this project did not exist.  Engineers decided to build a jetty of quarried large rocks to filter the shifting sand across New Inlet.  They began the project in 1865.

Engineers used rocks from a quarry north of Wilmington and manpower, horses, mules were used to load rocks on barges which were then floated down the Cape Fear River where they were sunk and in four years a manmade jetty was created.

I have always understood that this project occurred during the 1870s.

--Old B-Runner

Fort Fisher's "Rocks"-- Part 1: A Need for Navigation Safety

From the July 14, 2016, Carolina Weekly News "The Rocks: A 19th Century Civil Engineering Landmark."

Thousands of North Carolinians travel annually past Wilmington, North Carolina, headed for vacation destinations like Carolina Beach, Kure Beach and the Fort Fisher area.  Unless they go beyond these as well as the North Carolina Fort Fisher Aquarium to the Fort Fisher-Southport Ferry, they won't know about the huge civil engineering job that has been built at the terminus of US-421 where they will find what is commonly referred to as "The Rocks."

This is essentially what amounts to as a dam built across and closing what was called New Inlet.

The port of Wilmington was extremely important during the Civil War because of the double entrances to its Cape Fear River which proved to be a haven for blockade runners, especially at what was called New Inlet.  This was the entrance/exit protected by Fort Fisher.

After the war, the American Society of Civil Engineers (the forerunner of the Army Corps of Engineers) recognized a need to keep the Cape fear River channel open and clear of uncharted sandbars and shoals decided to do something about these.

--Old B-Runner

155 Years Ago: Two Floating Torpedoes Found in Potomac River

JULY 7, 1861:  Two floating torpedoes (mines) in the Potomac River were picked up by the USS Resolute, Acting Master W. Budd-- the earliest-known use of torpedoes by the Confederates.  During the course of the war a variety of ingenious torpedoes destroyed or damaged 40 Union ships, forecasting the war growth to come in this aspect of underwater warfare.

--Old B-R'er

Keep the Fort Fisher Dam Rock Solid

From the May 5, 2016, Wilmington (N.C.) Star- News  "Editorial: Keep Fort Fisher dam rock solid."

Photograph accompanying it:  "A massive engineering feat of the 1800s, also known as the New Inlet Dam, 'The Rocks' constitute a gigantic breakwater, or rock jetty, at the tip of federal Point.  The rocks extend from the mainland and beyond Zeke's Island for more than three miles."

Senator Michael lee, R-New Hanover County, proposed removing a section of the 130-year-old dam which was built to close New Inlet into the Cape Fear River which was formed by a storm in 1761.  This was the favored entrance to the Cape Fear River and Wilmington by blockade-runners during the Civil War and protected by the guns of Fort Fisher.

Lee wants the southern section, called the Swash Defense Dam removed to recreate the natural flow.

The Army Corps of Engineers, who built it, is not sure exactly why Lee wants it removed, nor is the Wilmington Star-News, concluding, "We're still puzzled by Lee's request, and we're not alone in our puzzlement."

I, myself, don't want it removed.  I have walked on it many times.

--Old B-R'er

Despite Bill, the "Rocks" Going Nowhere Anytime Soon

From the October 20, 2015, Wilmington (NC) Star-News by Cammie Bellamy.

The North Carolina General Assembly debated the future of the New Inlet Dam for months.  Now there is a provision in the budget for the removal of part of it, though it could stay open for years and possibly never removed.

The dam was built across the much-used by blockade-runners New Inlet to the Cape Fear River and Wilmington after the Civil War.  Fort Fisher was built to guard  New Inlet.

Discussion began in April for its removal of part of it south of Zeke's Island.  The Senate Bill 160 was introduced by Senator Michael Lee, Republican, of New Hanover.  It stalled in committee and ended up as funding for a study on its removal.

Any actual removal could not start until a study is completed.

--Old B-Runner

North Carolina's "Rocks" Are Solid-- Part 3" Leave the "Rocks" Be

Most authorities say that if the "Rocks" go, the Cape Fear River will start silting in again.  Wilmington would have to close as a port to large ocean-going ships and would essentially become just a glorified marina.

There are some who say that this move is all a par of a conspiracy to turn Southport, at the mouth of the Cape Fear River into a "mega-port.  Sen. Lee denies this.

Both Southport (Smithville during the Civil War) and Bald Head Island have also come out against the destruction of the "Rocks."  The reopening of New Inlet would hurt the tourist-friendly part of Bald Head Island.

Environmentalists "who ought to be the notion's (tearing down the "Rocks") biggest cheerleaders," are against it.  It would erase an estuary system that has built up along Zeke's Island.  The lagoon that formed because of the "Rocks" is a mecca for fishermen.

The Wilmington Star-News closes the editorial with its recommendation:

"The sensible thing, then, would be to put the notion on hold and study it for a long, long, long time."

--Old B-Runner

North Carolina's "Rocks" Are Solid-- Part 2

The two-mile dam was built by the Corps between 1874 and 1882.to close New Inlet which was opened by a particularly bad hurricane in 1761.  As early as the 1850s, surveyors and engineers had determined that currents from New Inlet were silting in the Cape Fear River channel and in time would cause the port of Wilmington's closing.

However, during the Civil War, New Inlet proved to be the preferred entrance and exit of blockade-runners.

After the war, the U.S. government hastened to close it and put the father of famed architect Henry Bacon in charge of it  He used his father's rock-laying technique developed at "The Rocks" to build up the foundation of his Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C..

--Old B-Runner

North Carolina's "Rocks" Are Solid-- Part 1

From the August 30, 2015, Wilmington Star-News editorial "Rocks Solid."

This concerns last week's posting about a move to take down part or all of "The Rocks" which were built to close New Inlet, a favorite route of blockade-runners during the Civil War into the port of Wilmington, North Carolina.  Fort Fisher was built to protect New Inlet.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers once listed "The Rocks" near Fort Fisher as one of its proudest achievements.  "So why does state Sen. Mike Lee want to tear it down?"

The New Hanover County Republican has introduced a bill to remove all or part of it between Zeke's Island and Bald Head/Smith island.

He talks about restoring the natural flow of the Cape Fear River and the local environment.

--Old B-R'er

N.C. Senate's Plans for "The Rocks" Still Unknown

From the August 28, 2015, Coastal review Online by Kurt Ross.

The 140-year-old New Inlet Dam at Zeke's island on the Cape Fear River is being studied for a determination as to whether pert or all of it will be removed.  The cost will be included in the final state budget.

During the Civil War, New Inlet, guarded by Fort Fisher, was a favorite entrance and exit to the Cape Fear River and Wilmington, North Carolina.  After the war, it was decided that the inlet would be closed to prevent silting and a two-mile dam was built by the Army Corps of Engineers.  It was completed in 1871.  The dam prohibits what some now consider the natural flow of water between the Cape Fear River and the ocean.

Zeke Island was formed after the dam was built.  It is one of the three original islands in the National Estuarine Research Reserve components established by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and the North Carolina Division of Coastal Management in 1985.

I walked on "The Rocks" as they are called this past July and they are in bad shape.  The original covering over the rocks has broken down in many places making walking on it somewhat dangerous.  I am not sure whether I want it removed or not.  It has always been there and we have been on it often as well as fishing and crabbing from it.  But, it would be somewhat neat to have New Inlet back as it was during the Civil War.

--Old B-Runner

And, Speaking of New Inlet: "The Rocks"

After the war, New Inlet was determined to be detrimental to navigation on the Cape Fear River and it was determined to close it by means of a dam across it.  That dam, completed in the 1880s is still there and called "The Rocks."

I have been writing about "The Rocks" and the closing of New Inlet in my RoadDog's RoadLog blog the last several days.

Of interest, the engineer who designed the dam and constructed it, Henry Bacon, Sr. is the father of Henry Bacon, Jr. who was the architect of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C..

--Old B-R'er