Pic of the Day: Gaines, Lit Up

I can't remember the photographer's name, but he was quoted in a photog magazine: "When your jaw drops, trip the shutter."

As the weather warms up, people like me grab their cameras and go to the various forts, looking for scenery like this.

This is inside Bastion 'A', at the northwest corner of Fort Gaines. This fort guards the west side of the channel into Mobile Bay from the eastern tip of Dauphin Island, AL.

Not as massive or as elaborate as Fort Pickens, Gaines' design is typical of forts built in the mid-1800's. Where earlier forts such as Morgan and Pickens had large, thick bastions guarding the walls, Gaines and her contemporaries (Clinch, Jefferson, and Taylor) have smaller, less elaborate bastions.

Those at Gaines and its twin Fort Clinch are different from any of the others in that long tunnels run from the back (gorge) of each bastion in toward the middle of the fort. The skylight and smaller openings (doors? windows?) are a nice touch. To the right, the dark opening leads to a spiral staircase that gets you on top of the bastion, where you can look out at Mobile Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, and a dozen or so gas-drilling rigs.

The ceilings in each bastion are beautifully vaulted; that'll be a different POTD.