Dry Tortugas
An unfinished brick fortress on a coral key, 70 miles past Key West.
- From Key West
- About 70 miles
- Fort Jefferson
- More than 16 million bricks
- National park
- Since 1992
- Tides
- Two highs, two lows, uneven
Then
- 1513
Juan Ponce de León arrives on June 21, catches 160 sea turtles and names the islands the Tortugas.
- 1825
Work begins on a lighthouse on Garden Key. A taller light on Loggerhead Key replaces it after 1856.
- 1847
Construction starts on Fort Jefferson. It is never finished, and is used as a prison until 1874.
- 1865–1869
Dr. Samuel Mudd, convicted in the Lincoln assassination conspiracy, is held at the fort until his pardon.
- 1935
Fort Jefferson National Monument is designated on January 4.
- 1992
It becomes Dry Tortugas National Park on October 26.
Now
There are no roads: the park is reached only by boat or seaplane, and about 80,000 to 90,000 people make the trip in a busy year.
Bush Key closes from February to September for nesting sooty terns; the park holds the only nesting colonies of sooty terns, brown noddies, magnificent frigatebirds and masked boobies in the lower 48. Its reefs are the least disturbed in the Keys.
On the water
From NOAA's predictions for Garden Key, Dry Tortugas, FL over the next 365 days. Heights are in feet above mean lower low water (MLLW).
- Pattern
- Two highs and two lows a day, one noticeably bigger than the other
- Typical daily range
- 1.7 ft
- Biggest swing
- 2.9 ft on Dec 24
- Smallest swing
- 0.3 ft on Apr 29
- Highest high
- 2.4 ft, Oct 29 at 12:18 AM
- Lowest low
- −0.9 ft, Jan 21 at 3:20 AM
2 tide stations around Dry Tortugas
- Garden Key, Dry Tortugasin town
- Loggerhead Key, Dry Tortugas2.9 mi