On the Penobscot, architectural wonders abound

Re-enactors fire a cannon from one of the fort's guns. (Sara Thorp photo). Below, the interior parade ground and the bridge observatory. (Courtesy photos)

PROSPECT, Maine - Halfway up the coast of Maine lies a couple of architectural wonders within a stone’s throw of each other: Fort Knox and the Penobscot Narrows Bridge observatory.

Fort Knox is a one-of-a-kind military fort built to protect the Penobscot River and the ships that plied her waters filled with shipbuilding lumber from marauding British ships in the mid-1800s, but its cannons never fired a shot in war.

In fact, the fort was never completed even though the federal government invested more than a million dollars in its constructions, a lot of money back then.

The fort is built into a steep hill that rises from the Penobscot’s banks in the town of Prospect, across the river from Bucksport.

The inside parade ground is impressive as are the huge imprints of gun turrets from which heated cannon balls designed to set target warships ablaze were fired.

The ovens that heated the cannonballs still stand and the grounds are well kept, but it’s easy to become lost in this labyrinth of passageways and tunnels in this fortress, the first in American to be built of stone, not wood.

The fort has a beautiful parade ground that looks really beautiful all the time.

  A moat surrounded portions of the fort to make a land assault near impossible.

Oftentimes on weekends period re-enactors post themselves on the east side of the fort and fire cannons at the top of every hour.

The Friends of Fort Knox now maintain the fort after taking over the day to day operations from the state of Maine.

A five-minute walk up the road and admissible on the same ticket that gains entrance to the fort grounds is the Penobscot Narrows Bridge, where a 60-second elevator ride will whisk you to a spectacular view from the 420-foot-high observatory.

When you step off the elevator an attendant suggests you don’t look down at the view right away. It is dizzying at first.

After ascending two more flights of stairs you’ll look out at a 360-degree panorama, with helpful display boards identifying geographical points of interest.

There are only a handful of such bridge observatories in the world, and this is the only one in the Western Hemisphere.

For more information go to http://fortknox.maineguide.com/.