Fort Pulaski National Monument

On April 10 and 11, 1862, Union batteries on Tybee Island breached the fort's southeast wall from more than a mile away with rifled cannon, the first time the weapon had been used in combat. The bombardment opened at 8:15 a.m. on the 10th; by the next day two 30-foot holes had been opened and shells were passing through the breach toward the north magazine and its 40,000 pounds of powder. Colonel Charles Olmstead surrendered his 385 men and 48 guns at about 2:30 p.m., roughly 30 hours after the first shot. The result made brick forts obsolete.

Yes, if you give it two hours. The moat, the drawbridge, the casemates and the unrepaired shell scars in the southeast corner are the visit, and the walk from the visitor center to the terreplein takes you through all of them. It's a poor quick photo stop: admission is per person, the fort closes at 4:30 p.m., and even a short visit means walking the whole way in and back.

About two hours: 15 to 20 minutes in the visitor center for the exhibits and the 20-minute film, which runs on the hour and half hour from 9 a.m.; 30 to 40 minutes on the self-guided loop inside the fort; 30 to 60 minutes on the half-mile exterior loop around the moat; and the walk between them. Add 20 to 45 minutes for a ranger talk, and more for a trail.

$10 per person age 16 and older, free for age 15 and under, valid for seven consecutive days. The park is cashless, so bring a card. Families and small groups don't need a reservation; commercial, school and large groups have their own rules. The film and the ranger programs are included in the fee.

The grounds and visitor center are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, and the historic fort and its entrance close at 4:30 p.m. The trails are open 9 to 5. The park closes on New Year's Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Weather changes fast on the island, so check the park's alerts page on the morning you go.

He started it. Lee arrived in 1829 as a second lieutenant fresh from West Point, on his first Army assignment, and designed the dikes and drainage ditches that turned the marsh island into ground that could carry a fort; Lieutenant Joseph K. Mansfield took over in 1831. Construction ran from 1829 to 1847, with work halted for months in the worst summers, on some 5,000 timber pilings driven up to 70 feet deep, using more than 13 million bricks. The bricks were made by enslaved men, women and children at the nearby Hermitage Plantation, and their fingerprints can still be seen in Casemate 16.

Confederate officers held as prisoners in the fort. On October 23, 1864, about 540 of them, brought from the Morris Island stockade in Charleston Harbor, were marched into the southeastern casemates, the corner the guns had wrecked in 1862. Their diet had no meat, fruit or vegetables, and scurvy, diarrhea and dysentery followed. Thirteen died and were buried outside the fort; the rest boarded a steamer for Fort Delaware in the first week of March 1865, and the survivors gave themselves the name. The thirteen unmarked graves are at the northwest corner of the fort.

No. The lighthouse and its island are closed to the public for preservation work, and the base is under water twice a day at high tide. The 1.7-mile Lighthouse Overlook Trail, out and back through marsh and forest, is the closest view. The tower stood in the direct line of fire in April 1862 and took only minor damage, because the Union gunners had to fire at a high angle to reach the fort.

Partly, and it's best judged feature by feature. Four accessible parking spaces are near the visitor-center entrance, the visitor center has a ramp and automatic outer doors, and free loan wheelchairs are first come, first served. The paved route to the fort crosses two bridges without handrails and a grooved stone incline that's slick when wet. Inside, a brick walkway rings an uneven grass parade ground, the casemates are entered by a 6-inch step or a brick or wooden ramp, and the terreplein is reached only by 29 steps of 8 inches with no handrails. The theater doors aren't automatic. The Dike and Lighthouse trails are flat grass and crushed shell that can be uneven.

Yes. They live in the moat, the feeder canal and the grassy areas, and the rule is to stay 30 feet away. Fire ants and armadillo holes are in the grass too, and gnats and mosquitoes are at their worst at dawn and dusk in the warm months. Heat exhaustion is the summer risk the park warns about most; the only water fountains are by the visitor-center restrooms, and there are no vending machines.

Fort Pulaski for the 1862 battle, the scale of the place and a day that continues to Tybee; it needs a car and $10 a person. Old Fort Jackson for a fort without the drive: an early-19th-century brick fort on the river at 1 Fort Jackson Road, east of downtown, run by the Coastal Heritage Society, open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for $15 an adult and $10 a child age 3 to 12, with cannon firings at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. when the weather allows. It was the Confederate headquarters for the river defenses until December 20, 1864.

On the trails, on a leash no longer than six feet. Pets aren't allowed inside the visitor center; service animals are. Think twice in summer: the heat, the fire ants in the grass and the alligators in the moat are the reasons, and there's no water on the trails.