Fort Worden State Park

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Fort Worden State Park sits on 433 acres (1.8 km²) near Port Townsend, Washington in Jefferson County. The park was originally a 19th century U.S. fort[1] located on and around Point Wilson, standing at the entrance of Admiralty Inlet to the Strait of Juan de Fuca.[2] Today the 2.1 miles (3.4 km) of sandy beaches and high bluffs attract residents from around the region to the multi-use recreation facility.

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[edit] Unique features of the park

Fort Worden State park has many interesting aspects.

  • Its generally sandy beaches, for one, attract visitors who seek to escape the generally rockier beaches of the interior of the Puget Sound.
  • An extensive system of large, abandoned bunkers are available for exploration.
  • Beachcombers may see large ocean-going ships steaming in and out of the sound through the strait.

[edit] General information

According to the park's website,[1] "Fort Worden, along with the heavy batteries of Fort Flagler and Fort Casey, once guarded nautical entrance to Puget Sound. These posts, established in the late 1890s, became the first line of a fortification system designed to prevent a hostile fleet from reaching such targets as the Bremerton Naval Yard and the cities of Seattle, Tacoma and Everett. Construction began in 1897 and continued in one form or another until the fort was closed in 1953. The property was purchased as a state park in 1955. Fort Worden is named after Rear Admiral John L. Worden." John Worden commanded the US Navy ironclad USS Monitor against the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia (former USS Merrimack) during the American Civil War naval Battle of Hampton Roads.

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