The Battle of Fort Norfolk: Engineers keep nature from doing what England couldn't

Posted February 24, 2011
By Kerry Solan
Norfolk District Public Affairs

02/24/2011 - FORT NORFOLK, Va. — If Fort Norfolk's wall could speak, it might have just groaned after the December's nor'easter.

The more than 200-year-old fort stymied the British during the War of 1812 when it prevented a war fleet from capturing the USS Constellation. During the Civil War, the fort loaded the Confederate's ironclad, the CSS Virginia, with munitions before it rumbled with the Monitor. Over time, wind pushed on its tired wall, water bullied the bricks and portions of the wall's outer layer – the veneer – were starting to lean like the Tower of Pisa.

In short, Fort Norfolk's wall was showing its age.

And for the last standing harbor-front fort authorized by President George Washington, that means a facelift.

So on a recent February day, contractors put in the last few rows of bricks as the wind whipped off the Elizabeth River. Workers iced each red brick with mortar before carefully tapping them level on the wall as 400-pound white capstones lay a few yards away in the grass – as the originals, they would be replaced when the work was done.

Craig Jones, a project manager at Norfolk District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is a liaison to the Norfolk Historical Society. He helped coordinate the repairs, as the district is responsible for keeping the fort, which is on its federal property, from crumbling into obscurity.

"We're trying to maintain the integrity of the wall," Jones said.

That's an uphill battle for a wall as old as Fort Norfolk's. The first bulwark was earthen with wooden supports. It wasn't until 1810, when war with England became inevitable, that it got the masonry-upgrade. Even then, the wall was a "dry stack:" bricks were laid without cement, without anything to bond the bricks together. It was a tactical advantage when it came to cannon-ball blasts against the wall: bricks in the wall would shift to absorb the impact. A previous repair from 30 years ago had fixed the aging veneer, but hadn't tied it to the existing brick.

Contractor Mike Gianizero and his crew demolished part of the failing outer veneer before putting down a layer of modern brick that matched the look of the older masonry. He thinks that water was trapped behind the brick, and as the water froze and expanded over the years, it pushed the brick out.

That's one hypothesis.

Leonard Mule, structural section supervisor at Norfolk District, said it's possible that suction along the wall may have contributed to its failure, especially if there was already a weakness in the bulwark. The law of physics says when wind blows along a surface, it causes suction. It's the same high-pressure principle that keeps airplanes aloft.

No one will know for sure unless the historical society sends out an archeologist to oversee a renovation of the wall – an excavation that would lead to a full-blown archeological dig. But the wall repairs aren't that, so the major source of the wall's suffering remains a mystery for now.

What does a facelift like that cost these days? About $43,000, according to Christian Brumm, a civil engineer supervisor at Norfolk District. That price tag is about five times the cost of a real facelift, but it's a real deal in terms of the square footage operated on: more than 600 square feet of veneer was replaced. That included soil anchors, a welded-wire mesh system for lateral stability and a whitewash. The Corps footed the bill for the work, and had the blessing of the Norfolk Historical Society.

The repairs are on time for next year's 200^th anniversary of the War of 1812.

"It's critically important that we take care of [the wall] so that the rest of the country gets the benefit of this historic gem," said Louis Guy, former president of the Norfolk Historical Society and an expert on Fort Norfolk. "It's a vital element to the celebration next year."

This wasn't the first and it won't be the last time the wall – or the fort – goes under the hammer for work. Because of its age, repairs like this are normal, Jones said.