granite, is flanked by a stone bench. attributed to henry banken, the designer of the lincoln memorial. in the mid-1960's, the memorial was moved from its original site to make way for the john f. kennedy center for the performing arts. today it stands close to the waterfront in southwest washington. in the past, education was limited to the opportunity down the street at the local school. bu particular for high school students, they are learningt now, -- they are learning a of digital services. some that are formal and paid for by the state, and some that are in formal. the resources that students and parents find online. becoming important at stake to make sure that every family have access to a friday

iety of an -- a vareit full and part-time learning. >> digital learning and the future of the education system with tom vander ark monday night on "the communicators," on c-span 3. week, america artifex takes viewers into archives and historic sites around the country. at the outbreak of the civil war in the spring, 18 61, washington, dc was a lightly defended city and vulnerable with only one for located 12 miles south of the city and the confederate state of virginia just across the potomac. by 1865 the nation's capital had become the most fortified city in the world, with a ring of 70 armed forts encircling the city. we visited three of us arriving with- the surviving forsts dale floyd.

>> right now we are in the museum of fort ward, which has a variety of different artifacts. one of the nice things is we the defenses of washington and it gives you a good idea of where they are today. we are at fort ward which is here. and today, we are also going to go to fort foote, which is down here. and all the way up to fort stevens which is up there. the reasoned that the forts were basically to protect the capital of the united states. it first started in may, 1861. soon after virginia seceded from the union. the troops moved over one night across the potomac, over into arlington and alexandria and

started building fortifications after the first battle of in whichin july, 1861 the union was defeated.the men came streaming back into the city, and the city could have walked in and taken the city. so after that was the fear more and more fortifications were built. the general bernard -- barnard, he was in charge of them for the war. he started developing a system of fortifications around the capital and how they would actually defend the city from the enemy invaders. after second manasas, fear again. and some more impetus to make sure the fortifications

defending washington were doing their job. years, many of the forts were made larger. guns were change to get the best function out of each fort an out of the system itself. the defenses were tested in july, 1864. before i say that, there were -- where theyhe forts would come in and steal horses or supplies. but the only real attack -- a reconnaissance -- took place on when jubal of 1864 the --ought at in august nocacy then march towards

washington and eventually came up and faced these forts up there, the main one fort stevens where abraham lincoln actually came out to watch what was going on. he was not successful. he realized he really could not do what he wanted to do and eventually turned around and went back down into the valley. and after that, basically, nothing really tested the fortifications after that. themselves,forts you had the batteries that were on both sides or in the rear. you had trenches that connected the forts all away around the city. you can see up here where in between you had the covered ways going all the way from one fort next battery, so that troops could move back and forth without eating scene. -- being seen.

besides the forts, they built block houses, railroads. and they had other things that they actually built for protection within the whole system of the defenses of washington. so it was actually a system of fortifications. here, youacked would catch fire from the forts on both sides. they were mutually supporting. it would have been hard to take one fort because of all the fire you would receive coming from the various forts. it is not important necessarily about how many forts there were. it is the system and the mutual thatse that was there would really stop an enemy from

getting into the city. if you look at some of the pictures they have here, you will see an interior of fort stevens. photo ofbelow it is a lemmer,mmer, -- fort s which is my favorite photograph because it shows you what a fort looks like on the outside. the vegetation has been removed. this is the sallyport. you can see over the parapet into the fort where the guns are mounted. that is one of my favorite photographs. this is very helpful for a start. fort ward is a good place to start our tour of the civil war defenses of washington. before we go out and look at for tward, him want to point out that this is an 1864 plan.

the part that has been restored is the northwest bastion. you will see that the rest of the fort is not as distinct when you walk through it. but the northwest bastion is. this is a model of the fort. notice around it is the apogee. on the outside of the ditch. the fort itself. this is the northwest bastion here. or sallyport to fort ward. it was on the rear wall of the fort. it has been redone a number of times. the army at fort belmar, -- fort belvoir, helped redo this gate. but this is your entrance to fort ward. i want to point out, if we look around, there were buildings here. they are based on plans and

photographs of buildings that were actually in the defenses of washington. but there were other dates li -- gates like this at other forts. they may not have been that nice but some of them were with the name above. the 1865 would not have been on the original gate. above it is the engineer castle, the logo of army engineers. as i told you, the engineers at fort belvoir helped rebuild this gate. they put the engineer castle on top. they oversaw the construction of the original defenses of washington. this is one of the best preserved of the various forts in the defenses of washington. these parts of it are fairly well taking care of.

but once we get to the northwest bastion, you will see what the fort would have looked like at the time of the civil war. these are all part of the fort were were in. it is a large area. there is also signage that we will see as we walk-through explaining what each resource we run into was. such as a sign here which is pointing out that there was a bomb -- which collapsed in. it was for men to go in when the fort was being shelled and it would protect them. depending,, -- it would be made out of earth. they had a basement. grassvver top with

growing. if you got inside the bombproof your safe. that is what is underneath here. we are coming to the northwest bastion. first of all, notice the wood that is there to strengthen the fort. thedes the earth, you have wood to keep it in place. you can see the guns, and they are a variety of guns that you will see. and this is what happened that a lot of forts. what guns you could get a hold of. you have everything from field artillery to bigger guns. the fort itself was supposed to cover the little river turnpike, the alexandria railroad and the leesburg in alexandria pike. but we are on a high point. fire for a ccaan

long-distance and cover those areas. the original fort that was built guns, when it was redone in 1864, it held 36 guns. 818 yardsards to with a bigger fort and 12 additional guns. warhad basically during the guns with and black bronze and iron. smooth the bronze was bore. and the black guns were rifled guns. and the rifled guns had a better range and fired better. but a gun like this was a good

anti-personnel weapon. there were types of ammunition you could use. plus at times you could put chains and fire it at an enemy. down ains could mow number of men. this type of gun became a good anti-personnel weapon. platform you can take a look at the fort without walking on the walls. as we get up here, you can see embrasures asthe they come out of the fort. on the inside of the ditch, that is called a scarf. on the outside that is called the counter scarf. at the top they have those bushes running. that is to keep people from walking in the mote.

and trying to walk up the parapet. abatee,bushes are like which are pointed stakes they would have outside a lot of forts. it has to purposes -- to keep to he people out. and these platforms they built, you can walk into the moat and you are not actually walking on it and helping to destroy it. you attack, these trees would have been cut down. that would've been open ground. they could start hitting you with artillery and rifle fire way back. au would hit the apogee -- batee, into the ditch and try to climb up the high parapet. you would've had infantry on the

other side as well as artillery firing at you. so it was not an easy task. in trying to take one of the forts. plus, your catching fire from the other forts on both sides of this one. forts when ie first came. there were a lot of you were here. past, a lot of them became housing developments. interest over the years has increased. it was a problem in this area because these were union forts. and most of these people in virginia had seven sympathies. they could not see any good reason for saving a northern fort. at fort foote on the

potomac river in maryland. we have come from fort ward across the potomac river to fort foote. on this map, you will see, it would be anchoring the defenses on the potomac river down here. across the river in alexander was battery rodgers. then cover thee potomac river in case ships came up. this fort was constructed between 1863 and 1865. rts,ke most of the other fo it was not abandoned at the end of the war. they continued to maintain this 1878and man it until because it was on the river. the only other fort on the river -- on towards the chesapeake bay

was fort washington which is basically located across from mount vernon, george washington's home. at the beginning of the wa it wasr manned by marines. was not actually part of the civil war defenses of washington. the circle of forts. but if there would have been chips trying to come up, it would've had an effect, also. plan, it will the give you an idea of the way the fort was located on the river. you have some of the buildings associated with it behind. main focus was the river itself, even though it angered warnchored the other civil defenses of washington.

this is the way he would've looked to someone who would have come here during the civil war. this is a national park. at times, and has been quite overgrown. right now, you can see if you meok around, it needs so manicure and but it is better than i have seen it in the past. ward how wellt taken care of it is. it is a city park. the city does a very good job of taking care of fort ward. on whoorts depending maintains them and how good a somehey do, you can see places it is completely overgrown and you do not have a good idea of what you are

actually seeing. were're coming down to the potoc river. if you look across the way, you will seal its andrea. in-- alexandria in virginia. at jones point was battery rogers. have been inould this direction on the other side of the bridge. and batterypoint rogers was. the forts ran off from there. it anchored the defenses on the virginia side. the forts ran off through alexandria and back to the river and across. they had a team they could put psross the potomac to keep shi from coming up the river. as far as i know, we have never had it laid out. theyhey did have a chain

could use across the river. fortis a map, there is foote on the river, jones point over here. back over towards fort ward. then we are going to go to fort stevens. which is right here. to give you an idea. you see these black marks point out where the different forts were. and then the city more or less imposed on the map itself. are coming up on one of the 15 inch rodman guns. . you can see how large this there were guns like this that had actually a 360 degrees shooting area, because you can move it all away around this ring. now, these guns were left here

when they left the fort. when i saw them, they were off their carriages sitting on the ground. what had happened was during world war ii, when they were scrapping metal for the war they came out here and started dismantling the guns. they took them off the carriages and cut up one of the carriages. ranger showed up and said, wait a minute. what you doing? they said, no. these are protected. this is a national park. ares not want these guyn -- cut up. a congressman from pittsburgh where the guns were made said, if the park service is not going to remount them, i want them

back in pittsburgh. at that point the national park service decided to remount them. they build the new rings and carriages and they have been remounted. it was quite a job. but it gives you an idea of the way these guns would have loved at the time of the civil war and after. with world war i and world war ii that so many guns were melted down. there are a few big guns left from the civil war period. there are some. it is very valuable to have these two in fort foote. all of the guns have markings on them with the serial number. this says it was made in 1863.

this is the initials of thomas rodman. he was also an inspector. he may have inspected it. it depends on the fort itself as to what guns might actually be in them. this one had two 15 inch guns. they had four 200 pounder parrets. there were a lot of places there were some bacon platforms. 11 they can platforms -- 11 vacant platforms. as they reconstructed some of these forts, he decided that new guns would go in and help cover this. plans for the

fortifications, the system of forni-- fortifications did change. i told you we would stop and i would show you what some of the 360 degree angle guns look like. the carriage is a little bit different. you notice the bottom. that gun could be turned 360 degrees. you can fire if the gun is mounted on the parapet. you're only going to one about 180 degrees. but it could be fired the other way if needed. but you can see the abatee. stakes on the outside. it is in the ditch on the outside of the parapet to keep enemies from coming in. but you can see that it is

clear, field of fire in front. this is forts stevens, which is one of the many forts in the defenses of washington. this is probably the most famous and i will explain why. originally this was known as for massachusetts. the people who built it immediately after the battle of first manassas, which scare the and theyn, d.c. area, started getting serious about building defenses around the city. so for massachusetts was built in this area by massachusetts troops. it was about a perimeter of 168 inrds and encompassed 200 men the fort. after second manassas in august, 1862, they decided to make this larger because of its location.

it's on high ground. it covers and 7th street which today is george avenue. the 7th street extended which a lot of people use. it was important to protect it. they made it larger so it was 375 yards perimeter. as i mentioned, it was the most famous fort. that is because of the battle of fort stevens on july 11, 12, 1864 when jubal early brought upops up through the valley, around frederick, maryland, and then in towards washington, d.c. on july 11, he came very near the fort itself. his men were exhausted. they could feel it out a little bit that day but decided they would have a demonstration next day.

i've explained before that these defenses were mutually supporting. so that if you attacked fort stevens you were going to catch forts on both sides. even jubal early and has demonstration on the 12th realize that. and decided to leave. now, the defenses, as i mentioned, had started being 1861.in -- built in this is the, culmination of the defenses. following the attacks in july 1864. really, they pretty much went unaligned. -maligned. lee was more or less headed south and the other confederate troops were doing the same in other parts of the country.

so in 1864, it was probably the culmination of the defenses themselves, even though construction went on right to the end of the war. on some of them even afterwards. interestingly in the 1930's, the civilian conservation corps was brought in to work on this fort .. after the civil war, it was abandoned and it was not until at somethe turn, 1900, th of the veterans of the sixth corps raise money to buy the land. as you see when looking around the fort it is by no means all here. but they tried to restore it as best they could. ettment. notice the rev those logs are made out of

concrete. what we are seeing is this area over to about here. and then on the front side you will see the ditches still t here. this area is cut off on the side. it was never fully finished in the rear. it was more or less like -- they in the back to close it into support it. of forte battle stevens was going on in july, abraham lincoln came out to the he got up on the parapet to look out to see where the troops were. and there were actually some sharpshooters who took shots at him. they did not hit him.

the story is, and i wondered whether this is true or not, oliver wendell holmes who became famous later was said to have fool."et down, you i doubt that happened, but there are people that said that is what oliver wendell holmes said. standing onoln here the parapet looking out to sea see where the enemy troops actually were. other can watch this and american artifacts programs anytime by visiting our website. c-span.org/history. 100 years ago after the beginning of what was called the great war, michael lasser looks back at the music of world war i. demonstrates how songs reflected the wartime experiences of