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Historic Ft. Jefferson is located on Garden Key, the largest island in the Dry Tortugas island chain in Florida, America’s most remote and least visited national park. The Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon first discovered this island chain in 1513. He named the islands Las Tortugas, meaning The Turtles in Spanish, because of the many sea turtles that they found there. The word “Dry” was latter added to the name to warn sailors that there was no fresh water to be found on the islands. Visiting Fort Jefferson at the Dry Tortugas is one of the best things to do in Florida for the American history buff. This impressive Florida attraction was once intended to be the largest link in America’s coastal defense system. Construction began in 1846 and used 16 million bricks, making it the largest masonry structure in the Western Hemisphere even though it was never actually finished.
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