Day 31: Charleston, SC to Summerville, SC

Stops:

Fort Sumter National Monument,Charleston,SC

USS Yorktown, Patriots Point, SC

Magnolia and Bethany Cemeteries, Charleston,SC

The Arthur Ravenel Jr. bridge  merges Charleston,SC to Mount Pleasant, SC. crossing the Cooper River. It is the 3rd longest cable-stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere with a span of 1546 ft long. It also makes for a picturesque scene.  When I was last here in 1983, it did not exist, so I was quite surprised to see it.  It was relatively new opening in July 2005. 

Nearby is Patriots Point, location of the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier and the boat to Fort Sumter. When I was here at the age of ten as part of my Cub Scout group, it was never called Patriots Point.  It was just a dock, but the USS Yorktown was still there.

We decided to visit Fort Sumter first because we didn't know if the cloudy weather would hold up.  It did.  In terms of the Civil War, Fort Sumter and South Carolina played an essential role.  In December 1860, SC seceded from the Union, thus creating the Confederacy. It was the first state to do so. The Confederate Army was born and states were picking sides.   On April 12, 1861, the Confederate Army fired the first shots on the Union fort, Fort Sumter, starting the first shots of the Civil War.  The Union Army surrendered 34 hours later after being bombarded from all sides.  Now the fort was a Confederate stronghold. The Union Army tried several times during the war to take back the fort but were unsuccessful.  Only towards the end of the Civil War did the Confederates give up the fort and abandon it when they found out they were going to lose the war.  

At almost 10 football fields long, the USS Yorktown is permanently docked at Patriots Point, along with  the destroyer, USS Laffey, and the submarine,USS Clamagore.  Known as the "Fighting Lady" of WWII, this aircraft carrier is almost ten football fields long and weighs 27000 tons.  The USS Yorktown also fought in many epic Japanese battles facing many Kamikaze planes. It also did tours in the Vietnam War.  It was used in the recovery of Apollo 8. It was finally decommissioned in 1970.

When I was ten, we stayed overnight on the Yorktown. I remember sleeping in one of the rooms reserved for higher ranking officers.  It had a set of bunks and its own sink.  The deck under the hanger deck was wide open and we ate in the mess hall.  We had church service in the aircraft elevator shaft. Today, things are different.  I can't get into the officer's quarters, the deck below the hanger deck is full  of exhibits and planes, the hanger deck had fewer planes and no helicopters.  They had setup a tour and marked the paths and setup mannequins and plexiglassed entrances to rooms.  When I was here in 1983, it was wide open and if you can get into it, you would.  Hide and go seek had a whole new meaning.

Charleston has a very unique area known as Rainbow Row, a series of historic houses painted in pastel colors and showcases what houses looked like in the early days after the Civil War.  Here is a small sample.  

Finally, based in Tripadvisor, we went to Magnolia cemetery. It is the location is 5 Confederate generals and amongst other residents.  Surrounded from oak trees with Spanish moss, it's exactly what I expected when I think of the South.  Unfortunately, when we got there, the cemetery was only open for 10 min before the gates were locked, so we hurried through it and thus the lack of photos.  There are no maps here, so unless you know where to go, you need more time here to discover the graves and the history.  It is unfortunate that the cemetery is located and an area of town that seems a little sketchy.  As cool as the cemetery is, we didn't want to get locked in so we left right at 6 pm when it closed.  Still, we saw many old graves and tombstones from the 1800's of men, women, and children. It was clear that children had a hard time surviving back then.