Charleston Preview

I’ve spent the last several days in Charleston, South Carolina, and packed a lot of visiting into a short amount of time. Of course I’ll add more information to the permanent pages of my Travel Adventures site over the coming weeks. In the meantime, I wanted to give you (my regular blog readers), a sneak peek at things to come.


Architecture

Charleston, South Carolina historic district. Photo by howderfamily.com; (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Aficionados of architecture love the Charleston historic district. I did too, and I enjoyed wandering amongst early American homes along cobblestone drives. These well-preserved structures exist block-after-block on the roads radiating up from the waterfront.


Civil War History

Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. Photo by howderfamily.com; (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Charleston played a prominent role in United States history. Just one example, Fort Sumter, marked the opening salvo of the American Civil War. The U.S. Army built the fort atop a man-made island in Charleston harbor as part of a coastal defense system. Today, tour boats take visitors to this sight throughout the day. What surprised me the most was its size. The island is tiny.

UPDATE: See the completed entry on Ft. Sumter, with photos and video.


Naval History

The retired aircraft carrier USS Yorktown moored at Patriots Point, South Carolina. Photo by howderfamily.com; (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The USS Yorktown aircraft carrier served during the Second World War and into the postwar era. It is now a floating museum anchored along Patriots Point on the opposite side of the Cooper River from Charleston. I took this photo from the top of the Arthur Ravenel Bridge.

Getting to the top of the bridge was easy since the builders conveniently included a wide pedestrian/biking path in their design. Also, hiking across the bridge has become a popular activity in the few years since it opened, and the views are spectacular.

UPDATE: See the completed entry on the USS Yorktown at Patriots Point, with photos and video.


Lighthouse

Sullivan's Island Lighthouse, South Carolina. Photo by howderfamily.com; (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

This is the Sullivans Island Lighthouse, one of the stranger looking lighthouses I’ve seen. Expect this one to appear on my Lighthouse Collection page. Sullivans Island is one of the barrier islands just offshore from the coast.

UPDATE: See the completed entry on Charleston Harbor lighthouses.

Comments

One response to “Charleston Preview”

  1. Gary Avatar

    I know this article was from 15 years ago, but I just saw it now. I will never forget one time my wife and I went to Charleston. When we checked into our hotel, the clerk saw where were from (Sanford, Florida) and said to us “Isn’t that where that Trayvon Martin kid lived?” This was right around the time of the shooting, so everybody nationwide knew about it. We heard about it for months. I was almost on the jury for the trial. Thankfully, I was far enough down the list so the county never got to my group. Usually juries for trials are picked in one day. Took a week and a half to pick the Zimmerman jury.

    We still occasionally hear about Zimmerman. Casey Anthony too. That was in Orange County, the next county down from here, and around the same time. Everybody I am sure knows those two names – George Zimmerman and Casey Anthony.

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