Fort Jefferson

Fort Jefferson was built 120 miles of the coast of Florida. It was built in 1846 to keep out invaders and to keep in prisoners. Its walls are 50 feet high and go straight into the sea. The fort had four hundred guns on top of the walls to defend the fort.

In 1865 John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln and jumped from the box to the stage but broke his leg and still got away. He and a friend went to a doctor named Samuel Mudd who new nothing about Lincoln's death and he helped them.The next day Dr. Mudd was arrested for helping them and taken to Fort Jefferson. Fort Jefferson's mosquitoes carried a disease called yellow-fever and lots of people got sick and died. Doctor Mudd helped the people who got sick but in 1870 the fort was abandoned. In 1935, Fort Jefferson was made into a National Monument.