Battery Langdon -- Fort Pickens, Pensacola Beach, FL
N 30° 19.100 W 087° 15.725
16R E 474804 N 3354088
The historic marker at the access point to Battery Langdon at Fort Pickens
Waymark Code: WMX895
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 12/11/2017
Views: 2
This marker is located along Fort Pickens Road at the public path to access Battery Langdon.
The sign reads as follows:
"BATTERY LANGDON
BIG BANG
hidden beneath this vegetation is battery Langdon, Fort Pickens most powerful gun emplacement. Its 12-inch guns could throw a projectile 17 miles out to sea. The first time Artillerymen M. Harry fired one of them, his hat blew off, his pants split, and he saw concussion ripples in the sand. The massive bunker, begun in 1917 and completed in 1923, was covered with soil during World War II to camouflage it from any enemy aircraft.
“Lots of boys . . . would bleed from the mouth and ears because of the concussion of the guns.”
R. Hoover Williams, a soldier of Battery Langdon in the 1940s."
Marker Number: 0000
Date: 1980
County: Escambia
Marker Type: Roadside
Sponsored or placed by: US National Park Service
Website: [Web Link]
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