The War of 1812 demonstrated a dire need for coastal defenses throughout the maritime states. Despite the lessons of the war, it still took almost 30-years for Congress to act. In the 1840s, a series of forts began construction along the east coast. One of these was a granite fort at Clark Point in New Bedford, known as Fort Taber.
The fort was still incomplete when the Civil War erupted. With Confederate ships prowling Long Island Sound and Buzzards Bay, the New Bedford City Council erected a temporary earthenwork fort at Clark Point to defend the local whaling fleet that was so vital to the New Bedford economy. The large granite fort that was originally commissioned two decades earlier was finally complete in 1863. The Clark's Point Lighthouse was relocated to the top of the granite fort in the 1880s, and it's that lighthouse that is the subject of today's photo.
Post processing started with a classic filter in Topaz B&W FX. I made minor adjustments to color sensitivity, but it was such a grey day that the image was almost a true black and white right out of the camera. There wasn't much color to adjust. I then applied adjustments to adaptive exposure, contrast, boost black, and boost white. A levels adjustment and a sepia photo filter were added in PSE.
