Thursday, July 28, 2016

Fort Weatherill and the Newport Bridge - July 28, 2016

West Cove at Fort Weatherill
I headed back to Jamestown today to paddle at Fort Wetherill. Like Fort Greble on Dutch Island, Fort Weatherill was coastal defense battery and training camp. It is located on 100-foot high granite cliffs on the East Passage of Narragansett Bay across from Newport and Fort Adams. 

I put in at the Fort Wetherill boat ramp at 7:30. As a paddled out of the West Cove into the East Passage the bay was dead flat with the only waves being an occasional boat wake. I paddled east around Bull Point and headed up to the Dumplings to get some pictures of the Newport Bridge.

Newport Bridge
The Newport Bridge was completed in 1969 and is the longest suspension bridge in New England.  It spans the East Passage of the Narragansett Bay from Newport to Jamestown.  The main span is over 1,600 feet long, and the road deck is more 200 feet above the water.  The towers themselves are over 400 feet tall.

I was surprised at all the birds gathered on the Dumplings - a grouping of rocks just off Bull Point.  The most prominent of the Dumplings is Clingstone or the "House on the Rock".  This massive post and beam home was built in 1905 and has been recently restored.

Clingstone - better known as the "House on the Rock"
Links:
My Pictures
Trip Description from Rhode Island Blueways

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