Visit to Fort Moultrie - Friday - October, 21, 2011

Nancy here:  This is the first part of our day trip to Charleston.  I know you have already seen the Bridge Walk Blog.  If you haven't seen it,  just click here.  Like I said, these are out of sequence since we stopped at  Fort Moultrie in the morning and then over to the bridge in the afternoon.  Oh well, the photos are nice regardless of what order they appear ;o))  Let’s just said it all happened on the SAME day!!

Remember to click on any photo to enlarge!

It was a beautiful day for a ride.  We left home about 8:30 and headed south on Rt. 17 toward Mt. Pleasant.  We took the Isle of Palm Connector over the Intercoastal Waterway. 

View crossing the Intercoastal Waterway

We headed south and crossed the bridge to Sullivan's Island.

View crossing the inlet to Sullivan's Island

Once on Sullivan's Island you just continue to

the southern most tip of the island to find Fort Moutrie.

(Take note of the church in the background)

Arriving at Fort Moultrie  

We went into the visitors center to purchase Nancy’s

Senior National Park Pass and a National Park Passport.

They have a very nice visitor center and a wonderful movie. 

Since we had just been here last year to buy my pass,

we didn’t spend time to redo those things. 

We highly recommend allowing time on your first visit to do both.

It was such a beautiful day,

Nancy wanted to climb the stairs to the roof of the visitor’s center

to take a couple photos.

Views of Fort Moultrie from the Visitor’s Center Roof

We did not go into Fort Moutrie today,

but we did spend about an hour

walking the grounds around the fort. 

Entrance to Fort Moultrie

You can see the photos we took last year from inside the fort here.

As we headed around Fort Moultrie towards the water,
we saw this large freighter entering Charleston Harbor.

It looked like it was about to ram Fort Sumter!!

We walked down to the beach and off to the west,

we could see the bridge we were going to walk later today.

Across the harbor, we could see the City of Charleston.

This is the view of Fort Moultrie looking back from the beach.

Display of the guns that were used at the fort.

As we headed back towards the car,

we saw this sign about Sullivan's Island and

its role in Slavery.

(be sure to click to enlarge)

We learned some history we did not know today.

Nancy had one last thing she wanted to check out. 

She wanted to see the church that is right next to Fort Moultrie.

It is a beautiful old church that sits right on the corner

across the street from the fort.

Literally, on the CORNER!!

There was no name on the outside of the church.

However, it was open and we went in.

There was the name...

'Stella Maris Catholic Church'

of

Moultrieville, SC!!



The Sanctuary and Stained Glassed Windows were beautiful!!

Nancy did a little research and found out the following on the Internet:

 

Sullivan's Island, the home of Fort Moultrie, suffered extensive bombardment by Federal troops, and by the end of the war, in 1865, the church was the only public building left standing on the island. Father Timothy Bermingham, the Vicar General of the Diocese of Charleston, took up Sullivan's Island as a special project in the late 1860s. He first planned to rehabilitate the old church. By 1868, however, Father Bermingham developed the idea that a new church building should be the centerpiece for a restoration of Sullivan's Island as a popular resort.

Father Bermingham bought the present church lot in October, 1868, for $100. He secured permission from the Secretary of War to use bricks from the ruins of Fort Moultrie to build the new church; indeed, in his enthusiasm for the project, he occasionally had to be physically restrained from tearing down additional walls of the Fort to secure even more bricks. On 18 January 1869 Father Bermingham laid the cornerstone for the new church, which he first called Saint Mary, Star of the Sea, or Stella Maris.

We are really glad we visited this historic church.

But now, we had to cross the little bridge

from Sullivan's Island to Mt. Pleasant

to find the big bridge over Charleston Harbor!!

 

It has been a great day so far and

I have no doubt,

things will be looking up ;o))

Charleston Bridge Walk - Friday - October 21, 2011

The weather was going to be perfect today and Nancy was off from work at Home Depot. We also knew that we had a house showing today (as it turns out we had two showings) so it was a great day to leave and go to Charleston for the day. We planned to drive down to Charleston to accomplish several things.

First, we needed to go to Fort Moultrie to get Nancy a senior national park pass. I have one, but we wanted a backup just in case we misplace it.  For the inexpensive price of $10, we figured it was a good insurance plan!! We only spent about an hour at Fort Moultrie as we have been there several times in the past, so we took some photos and then went to the second planned adventure for the day, walking over the Cooper River (Ravenal) Bridge.

Nancy here:  This post is out of sequence and should have appeared before the previous post about the house showings.  However, I am again behind on photos and blogging, so just pretend it is where it should be ;o))  Also, because I am behind and because there are so many photos, I will post our Fort Moultrie visit in a separate blog in reverse order also….after the blog about the bridge walk.  Now that you and I are totally confused…  hope you enjoy the photos and the beautiful day :o))

We left Fort Moultrie and drove to the base of the bridge

where they have a welcome center, a beautiful park and a fishing pier.

Approaching the Bridge

Photo from Wikipedia taken from Charlestown Harbor 

 

The Ravenal Bridge, its official name, is a 2.4 mile suspension bridge

over the Cooper River connecting Mt. Pleasant to Charleston.

Every year they have the “Cooper River Bridge Run”

with over 30,000 participants.

We thought it would be a fun thing to do, just not running and

not with 30,000 of our closest friends ;o))

View from our parking spot under the bridge

Waterfront Park under the bridge

Fishing Pier built on the supports of the old Cooper River Bridge.

The new bridge opened on July, 2005.

After putting our quarters in the parking meters,

we enjoyed our packed lunch and then

headed out to walk the bridge.

Sidewalk to start of the bridge walkway

View from the Start of the Bridge Walkway

On the east side of the bridge there is a 12 foot lane,

designated for foot traffic and bicycles,

which is separated from the auto traffic by large cement barriers.

It’s a great idea and well thought out.

Heading UP and South on the Bridge Walkway

We stopped many times to take pictures and

use binoculars to enjoy the fantastic views.

We kept looking at each other and

commenting about the spectacular sights we were seeing. 

We’ll let the photos tell the story!!

Our first view of Charleston. 

There was a large cruise shipped docked at the port. 

To the right of the ship, you can see the steeple of 

St. Mathews Lutheran Church. 

That is the tallest building in Charleston.

USS Yorktown, part of the maritime museum

at Patriots Point.

As we continued up, we could see another bridge off to our right (west). 

That is I-526 which loops around Charleston.

We are approaching the first tower!!  WOW, is it high!!

The bridge walkway juts out around the towers

which gave us this view from Tower One to Tower Two.

First cyclist we saw crossing the bridge.

He looks so tiny compared to the bridge!!

The Halfway Point

View from Tower Two to the Charleston end of the Bridge

Our son attended The Citadel and

we were able to locate the Citadel Clock Tower

from the Tower Two Platform.

We saw this large freighter heading to port

when we were at Fort Moultrie early this morning. 

Now, here it is at the shipyard being unloaded.

Here is a picture of the shipyard for the Port of Charleston. 

Lots of cars…not sure if they are coming or going. 

 My guess is COMING!! 

You can see another view of the Cruise Ship in the background.

This is the view at the end of our walk across. 

Now we turn around an head back. 

Yes Sherry, things do look different walking the same path

in the opposite direction ;o))

Another view of the USS Yorktown

with the Fort Sumter Ferry Boat passing in front of it.

All types and sizes of boats in the harbor!!

This is one BIG erector set ;o))

View from Tower Two (north) towards Mt. Pleasant

Water Taxi crossing under the bridge

We stopped in the middle of the bridge

so Nancy could take two photos of the harbor…

View to the Northeast – Mt. Pleasant and Patriots Point

View to the Southeast  -  The City of Charleston

As we approached our starting point,

we saw this cyclist was just starting UP… it is a long, hard climb!!

One last view of the USS Yorktown!

This guy was deliberately poling his boat into the grasses. 

Not sure what he was after?!?!

We were almost back to the start.

There’s our car parked under the bridge.

The walk was fantastic!

We’re going to have to bike this bridge some time.

However, we need to do some hill training first ;o))

The 5 mile walk can now be crossed off our “bucket” list.

Would we do it again?

ABSOLUTELY  --  Can't Wait!!

Before we headed back to Murrells Inlet,

we stopped at The Whole Foods Store in Mt. Pleasant.

We needed to pick up some groceries

that we can’t get here in Murrells Inlet

and the surrounding grocery stores.

Don’t ask me what they were!

I just know that Nancy said we needed them ;o))

All in All... It was a WONDERFUL Day!!