Fort Carroll: Secure Bird Sanctuary?

 

In the mid-nineteenth century, Baltimore’s ports needed increased protection along the Patapsco River for the routes between Baltimore and Chesapeake Bay. By 1848, the United States War Department had the green light to begin construction on a hexagonal structure designed by Robert E. Lee.

The fort would be named for Declaration of Independence-signer Charles Carroll in 1850, and saw use in the Civil War despite not yet being fully completed.  The structure was planned to have four levels, the first of which cost one million dollars to complete.