FORT PULASKI NATIONAL MONUMENT , off US-80 E en route to Tybee Island, is the most interesting of several local forts (daily 8.30am-6.45pm; $2). An impressive Confederate stronghold, set on its own idyllic if rather buggy little island and ringed by a moat inhabited by the occasional alligator, it was nevertheless taken by Union troops, the first masonry fortress to be pierced by rifled cannon fire.
Ten miles south of Savannah at 7601 Skidaway Rd, Wormsloe State Historic Site (Tues-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 2-5.30pm; $3; tel 912/353-3023) is the site of an eighteenth-century defensive plantation. The atmospheric tabby ruins of the fortified house of British settler Noble Jones are now overgrown with palms and lush forest. Inside the house, a museum covers the early settlement of Savannah, with archeological finds and demonstrations of the skills and crafts of the first settlers. Much of the Georgia coast is taken up by a string of National Wildlife Refuges , on the small marshy islands that make up the barrier island chain . It's well worth detouring or backtracking along the quiet side roads to cross to Blackbeard Island, Wolf Island, Pinckney or Wassaw , where tranquil swamps are filled with nesting birds and offer great fishing.
Copyright Rough Guides Ltd as trustee for its authors. Published by Rough Guides. All rights reserved. The Rough Guides name is a trademark of Rough Guides Ltd.
Copyright © 2006 United States.biz
