ARCHITECTURE EHLINGER & ASSOCIATES THIRD QUARTER 2014

control of the available from both FEMA and State fort weeks before Capital Outlay. To accomplish this, we have had to study the design and joined the construction history, and perform Confederacy assessments of the current conditions. and the begin- The original design of the fort was ning of the documented by obtaining the original American Civil design documents from the National War. When the Archives, and also having topographical Union Army and sounding surveys performed, and captured the city extensive soil borings and analyses of in 1862. they same. The foundation consisted of a mat also took over of 3 layers of tidewater red cypress timbers, the fort. It was 1' x 1' in cross section, criss-crossed. This then used as a mat was laid after first excavating the top base for raids most organic soil from the footprint of the and training of fort. The perimeter walls were founded the United upon corbeled brick spread footings (there FORT PIKE States Colored was no concrete in usage in the early 19th Troops, which century) supported on the timber mat, while Fort Pike was built by the U.S. Army was established in 1864 of former slaves. the walls supporting the vaults following the during the period The USCT were instrumental in Union are supported upon upside down arched 1817-1821 when numerous forts were built success. The fort was abandoned by the vaults, to distribute the load evenly on the all across the U. S. The fort was named for U.S. Army in 1890 without a cannon ever timber mat. The bastions (the outside Brig. Gen. Zebulon Montgomery Pike who having been fired in battle. It was listed on corner wall junctures) were filled with soil was killed in action during the War of 1812. the National Register of Historic Places in to the tops of the walls plus some, as was See the separate article about Gen. Pike. 1972 and became a state park known as the space above the casemate vaults. Only Fort Pike is located on the Pass the Fort Pike State Historic Site, and has the area in the center, where the Citadel , one of two passes (straits) that functioned as a very popular tourist Building is, was filled to the floor level of connect the Gulf of Mexico to Lake attraction ever since. the casemate vaults. The various vaults Pontchartrain, which is on the north The fort had been deteriorating for functioned as cannon locations, boundary of the City of . The years for reasons that will be later ammunition bunkers, and Suttler store. On other Pass is Chef Menteur, which has a explained, and was severely damaged by the top of the casemate vaults on the paved twin of Fort Pike guarding it: . in Both forts are located on Chef Menteur August 2005 when the Highway (U.S. 90), and are within the city 25' high storm surge limits of New Orleans. These forts were overtopped the struc- defensive structures built to guard against ture, submerging it invasive attacks of the city from the north under about 10' of water. in , accessed through It was again damaged in the two passes draining the lake. Hurricanes Gustav in During the Wars in 2008 and Isaac in 2012. during the 1820s, the U.S. held Seminole E&A was selected prisoners of war at Fort Pike. These by the State of Louisiana prisoners were eventually relocated to the in 2009 to design repairs Seminole Reservation in , to the Museum located now Oklahoma. Interestingly, P. G. T within Fort Pike in the Beauregard, also an engineer, was Citadel, a building in the stationed at Fort Pike in one of his earliest center, and to repair postings as a then Lieutenant. In 1861, various masonry walls to the Louisiana Continental Guard took the extent that funds are

2200 Houma Blvd., Metairie, LA 70001-1399 (504) 455-8911 . 3109 Ivy Ave. SW, Huntsville, AL 35805-4698 (256) 534-1900 © 2014 Ehlinger & Associates, P.C. Architects, A Professional Corporation fill, were also cannon tie rods with pressure plates at the bastions. locations. The Citadel The estimates are such that FEMA can’t fund was a mess hall on the it since much of the damage preceded the lower level and the upper storm. level was sleeping Ladd P. Ehlinger, AIA quarters (now destroyed). The entire Zebulon M. Pike structure is surrounded by a moat and accessed This famous general is the namesake of by a bridge across. There Fort Pike in New Orleans. He was an explorer was a dock, and a also, for whom Pike’s Peak in Colorado is hospital structure also also named. As an Army Captain in 1806-07, that has been destroyed, he was tasked by then President Jefferson north of the highway. to explore and document the southern In the early 19th portion of the Louisiana territory which century, the Jefferson had recently acquired from understanding of soil Napoleon, and to find the headwaters of the mechanics was very Red River. It was during this exploration that primitive and intuitive. he discovered what came to be known as Hence the foundation Pike’s Peak. This Pike Expedition was similar design was essentially to and immediately subsequent to the Lewis faulty. The timber mat was not loaded equally measure at Fort Pike. This is important & Clark Expedition and concurrent with the in all areas - the bastions were the most because the foundations of the two Freeman and Custis Expedition. Pike and his heavily loaded, next the casemate vault areas, structures are identical: a timber mat men got confused in their exploration in and next the center. These three loadings supporting both corbeled brick spread Colorado, got captured by the Mexicans, produced severe settlement and differential footings and upside down arched vaults. and taken to Santa Fe, capital of Chihuahua settlement. Based upon the historic drawings, We suspected that Beauregard also province and questioned by the Governor. we estimate that the fort has settled 30" to recorded settlements at Fort Pike since he They later were released at the Louisiana 36" (6” differentially), with the most was stationed there earlier, but have not border. Pike published an account of his settlement at the three bastion areas. The been able to locate any documents. One expeditions that was very popular and timber mat has served to soften and blend interesting bit of folklore: the public was translated into many languages. the differentials, by bending, but the under the erroneous impression that the Zebulon Montgomery Pike was born differential is severe enough for the shoulder foundation of the Customhouse was built January 5, 1779 during the Revolutionary War vaults next to the bastions to have opened upon cotton bales, because people near Lamberton, New Jersey. His father was up at the keystone at the tops of the shoulder witnessed numerous cotton bales being also named Zebulon, but did not have a vaults. These have been permanently shored delivered and incorporated into the middle name, and also served in the Army to prevent collapse. construction. The cotton was actually used during the Revolutionary War. The name The overtopping storm surges by the to caulk between the boards of the vertical Zebulon comes from the Hebrew, where hurricanes have caused severe erosion of the wooden sheet piling supporting the soil Zebulon was the sixth and last son of Jacob soil fill in the bastions, with large cracks at sides of the excavation below grade to and Leah, and the founder of the Israelite the corners, and caused the northeast prevent its leaking, as one also did in those Tribe of Zebulun (another spelling). The-- section of the seaward wall to rotate such days between the wood planking of a boat. Torah gives two different etymologies for that the battered portion of the wall is now Unfortunately, funds do not permit the the name Zebulun: the first that it derives vertical. There may also be some unknown proper, complete rebuilding of Fort Pike. from zebed, meaning gift, and the second that deterioration of the timber mat contributing There are finds only to restore the it derives from yizbeleni, meaning honor. to this wall rotation. We calculated that the museum, repair some very damaged walls, That Leah had given Jacob the gift of six factor of safety of these walls when originally and to install stabilization measures sons and the hope of Leah that Jacob would-- designed and built was 1.2 to 1, and that this consisting of some temporary tension rods honor her for that. rotated portion of the wall now has a 1.05 to at the tops of diagonally opposing Besides the expeditions that Pike led, 1 factor of safety, essentially no factor of columns attached on the outside of the his military career included a stint in New safety at all. If overtopped again by a storm bastion walls, where the walls balance each Orleans as deputy quartermaster-general in surge, this wall may well collapse into the other to prevent futher rotation and 1812 when he was promoted to Colonel, and Rigolets. collapse of either side of the bastions. then he was promoted to Brigadier General In his later years, P.G.T. Beauregard We had recommended that the soil be in 1813. He was then deployed on his last monitored the construction and foundation removed from the bastions and that military campaign on the successful attack settlement later of the U.S. Customhouse in geofoam replace half the soil fill to equalize on York, Ontario, Canada, where he was killed New Orleans over about a 10 year period. He the loading between the bastions and the in action by shrapnel, rocks and other debris recorded settlements and differential , and to repair / rebuild all of the by the explosion of a British ammunition settlements greater than we estimate / cracks in the walls, installing permanent magazine. Ladd P. Ehlinger, AIA © 2014 Ehlinger & Associates, P.C. Architects, A Professional Corporation