Fort Independence is on Castle Island, in a location that watches over both Boston Harbor and, now, Logan International Airport. It is that powerhouse of air travel that dominates the Castle Island experience today: Castle Island is a beautiful park, obviously much appreciated and well attended by the local populace, but it's difficult to ignore the frequent, sudden, deafening ROOOAARRR and startling presence of huge, incoming jetliners about three feet above one's head. This is not, however, to suggest that my visit to Fort Independence was in any way unpleasant.

Because despite the intermittent noise and hundreds of Bostonians furiously recreating in the park, and the fact that I couldn't actually get into the fort (which, when I visited on May 1st, was only open for guided tours for brief periods daily), I still had a rad starfort experience there...though I would suggest a potential visitor look into the times the fort might be open for inspection before traveling there.

Virtually all of Fort Independence's many firing ports are carefully bricked in, preventing not only e'er-do-wells from squirming in and making mischief (the park seems readily accessible to the public at all hours), but also me from taking much in the way of interior pictures, with one shining exception.

Gift shop? Quality of the interior? Don't ask me, I didn't get inside! When I visited Fort Trumbull in New London, Connecticut, it was also locked up tight, but its firing ports were merely covered with transparent (-ish) plastic, with several opportunities to snake an arm inside the fort holding a camera, but such opportunities are few (singular, in fact) at Fort Independence.

As mentioned, there were literally hundreds of people out and about in the park, running, walking dogs, picnicking, and just generally enjoying the view of Boston Harbor. There was enough room for everybody, however, and very few managed to intrude on the pictures I took.

Each of the thumbnails on this page can be gently clicked, upon which action a full-sized version of that picture will magically appear upon your viewing screen, along with further ruminations of mine on the subject of that picture. Just so we're all clear on how this works.