New to the site, but not to bunkers!

[NewBedfordBunkers]

Hey everyone.  Been checking out all these forts for some time now.  Been to Wetherill, Mansfield, Adams(tunnels), Revere, Tabor, Phoenix, Griswold, Trumbull, Barton. 

Plan to go to Getty, Independence, Warren and a fallout shelter located on Gooseberry Island in Westport.

[Chief]

Very cool man, welcome to the site.

[skully]

Yes,  welcome aboard.  Feel free to share whatever you got.   We will have a user gallery feature added to the site shortly.

[Megster]

Welcome to the site!

[CarbonCavi]

welcome! post pictures if you have them

[Ademan]

Welcome to the site man. I think you'll like it here.

[donnabhain]

late is better than never . . welcome to the site! been to a long list of bunkers as well, one of my favorite spots ! If you've got a car shoot me a PM and we can tour some forts

[Kurt]

Welcome to the site! Post some pictures sometime

[Hazad626]

fort rodman is crazy last time i was there some homeless guy tried to get me in the tunnels and theres needles and glass everywhere lol,
i like fort taber much better. ive heard theres tunnels under the tower on west island, but i think they filled them in, im very familiar with nb area welcome here!

[military nut]

forget gooseberry. you can still get into a bunker or 2 but no fallout shelter there

[StealthUnited]

Welcome!!

[donnabhain]

How big are the bunkers on gooseberry? been meaning to take a ride down to newport. i wouldnt say its on the way but closer to there than it is to here

[NewBedfordBunkers]

fort rodman is crazy last time i was there some homeless guy tried to get me in the tunnels and theres needles and glass everywhere lol,
i like fort taber much better. ive heard theres tunnels under the tower on west island, but i think they filled them in, im very familiar with nb area welcome here!

Fort Rodman and Fort Taber are the same place, so not sure what you mean by that?

[NewBedfordBunkers]

forget gooseberry. you can still get into a bunker or 2 but no fallout shelter there

There is an air raid station there covered by earth, that they recently backfilled to close it off permanantly.  Not sure if you have ever seen it?

[NewBedfordBunkers]

How big are the bunkers on gooseberry? been meaning to take a ride down to newport. i wouldnt say its on the way but closer to there than it is to here

Not very big at all, this was a submarine lookout site, it has a large tower which is now sealed off.  It also has a smaller tower which you can climb into, and a covered air raid shelter-which is also blocked off.  Its a great place to go for a walk, but not as much too see as other places.

[zman]

No - they are spotting towers for the big guns...not lookout towers for subs.    Also the "Air Raid" shelter is a protected switchboard room.  The entire fire control system ran off telephone.

[NewBedfordBunkers]

Not sure where you got that info on gooseberry?  Contradicts what i've been told about those and west island.  Where were these big guns located?

[NewBedfordBunkers]

Also worth noting is the huge underground bunker at fort tabor is accessible right now, pretty awesome!

[zman]

You can check out http://cdsg.org for more info on American coast defense forts.  Big gun positions are located at most major harbors on the East Coast.   NYC, Eastern Long Island Sound, Narragansett Bay, New Bedford, Boston, etc...

[dudemcrude]

Fort Rodman and Fort Taber are the same place, so not sure what you mean by that?

Yes, I was going to say the same thing.

You can get into Batteries Milliken and Walcott...  Milliken is the largest battery, the easiest to get into without being noticed, and by far the most interest.  Walcott is small, a little boring (though worth a look if you haven't seen it before, I supposed), and nestled in the busiest part of the park.  That being said, you won't likely be stopped from going in as you would Milliken, and they've made no attempts to close it off.  I've heard they rarely open Fort Rodman and allow visitors in to see it, but in all the times I've been there I've never seen it open.  My brother swears he has.

The other batteries are all filled in, I believe.  You used to be able to explore a side room of Battery Cross, but they cinderblocked and mortared the doorway 4 or 5 or so years ago.  They had done the same thing to all the doors of most of the other batteries, but someone had tunnelled in through the top of of Battery Barton sometime between 2004-2005.  I went in with my little brother to check it out and a couple of friends waited outside.

We climbed down... the entrance opening was pretty narrow, but it widened considerably into a grade that brought you down to the ground level.  It wasn't very large, but there were at least two rooms and the hallway made a U-turn that I didn't get the chance to explore.  About half way in, I noticed that the wall was covered in house centipedes (Scutigera coleoptrata).  I mean, the walls looked like they were fucking ALIVE because of them.  These happen to be the only animals that I'm irrationally afraid of (I think we all have one), so I really started privately freaking out and sort of ushered my brother out of the battery without explaining why.  I noticed on the way out that the centipedes were also lining the very narrow tunnel way and hesitated coming out for a few minutes...  when I got out, I explained why we left and he didn't seem to mind.  It was very odd.  I've never seen centipedes congregate like that... they aren't social animals at all.  I can honestly say that I saw more down in that battery than I've seen the entire rest of my life, and I've seen a lot.

[NewBedfordBunkers]

I went in the fort 2 years ago during a Revolutionary War weekend.  Nobody was allowed on the 2nd level, but I got a few cool pics and got to see it at least.  I just havent been in the bunker yet, every time i have been near there i havent had a good flashlight.

[JMALCOLM]

On Gooseberry there were originally three stations; a tower disguised as a lighthouse, and two stations disguised as beach cottages. There were for Battery Milliken, the battery at Mishuam Point and Batteries in Narragansett Bay. The west island tower served th4e exact same function as the towers at gooseberry. Also why the hell would you build a tower to see something submerged in the ocean. The navy had boats for spotting subs.