Pointless Prize #CivilWarForts

[lordofthemark]

During the American Civil War (1861-1865) Washington was surrounded by a chain of fortifications. Mostly in DC and northern Virginia, I think maybe a couple in Maryland.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to ride to as many of them as possible, take a photo of your bike there, and post the hashtag #civilwarforts on Strava.

Note – there does NOT have to be remains of a fort there. A plaque will do. There is at least one fort location where there is no plaque, and that is fine (you can find a list of the forts, other info, at https://www.nps.gov/cwdw/index.htm

You will get one point for each fort, but no more than one point a day.

Note, this is forts only – NOT streets named after civil war officers, or historic places that aren’t forts. Places listed on the civil war defenses website that do not have “fort” in their name (like Battery Garesche) are okay. This prize is inspired by a prize given in 2021 that was for all civil war sites, but this prize is different.

Note to those unfamiliar with ACW military tactics – the forts are all, or almost all, at the tops of hills – sometimes the tallest hill in a wide area. Have fun.

Topic

[CaseyKane50]

2/3/2025 Fort Corcoran

[CaseyKane50]

2/11/2025 Fort Strong

[LhasaCM]

2/15/2025 – Fort Chaplin

Finally got around to starting another round of test commutes before RTO (so I can more easily knock off these EOTR forts)

[CaseyKane50]

2/15/2025 Fort Lyon

[LhasaCM]

2/16/2025 – Fort Greble

[LhasaCM]

2/17/2025 – Fort De Russy

[LhasaCM]

Question for the handful of people following this: any interest in a (probably small) group ride to hit all of the DC locations on the NPS map?  Based on my schedule, I’m thinking maybe Sunday, March 9 with a 10/11AM start in either Georgetown or Alexandria, depending on what seems a better direction to travel.  The ride would be ~30 miles from Fort Greble to Battery Kemble, with a complete loop coming in around ~50 miles for those who’d bike the entire way around.

[CaseyKane50]

“Question for the handful of people following this: any interest in a (probably small) group ride to hit all of the DC     locations on the NPS map?  Based on my schedule, I’m thinking maybe Sunday, March 9 with a 10/11AM start in either Georgetown or Alexandria, depending on what seems a better direction to travel.  The ride would be ~30 miles from Fort Greble to Battery Kemble, with a complete loop coming in around ~50 miles for those who’d bike the entire way around.”

Interested, but might be constrained on how far I can ride.

[CaseyKane50]

2/19/2025 Unnamed battery between Fort O’Rourke and Fort Farnsworth

[Heming Nelson]

I’ve ridden to two forts this week, but have not shown up on the list. Wanted to make sure I am doing this correctly. In my Strava activity, I put #civilwarforts in the comment field and snap a pick or my bike at the location (?). Not sure if this is automated, or if the competition is tallied manually and perhaps just updated every so often instead of instantly. Thanks for the fun game BTW!

[lordofthemark]

Its supposed to be automatic.

Im not tallying manually. At most I’ll do an “audit” before giving the prize (even if the winner is someone i trust completely)

[lordofthemark]

I think the hashtag may need to be in the ride title rather than the comment field. Try that.

[CaseyKane50]

2/22/2025 Fort Greble

[LhasaCM]

2/22/2025 – Fort Mahan

[Heming Nelson]

Thanks! Putting the hashtag in the Title field on Strava fixed the issue.

[Author]

Replies