Q 01/05

The Dry Tortugas lie in which body of water, about 68 miles west of Key West?

A) Gulf of Mexico

B) Caribbean Sea

C) Atlantic Ocean

D) Straits of Cuba

Answer · why

A) Gulf of Mexico

The islands are the westernmost and most isolated of the Florida Keys, reachable only by boat or seaplane.

Q 02/05

What is the centerpiece of the park?

A) A 19th-century whaling station

B) Fort Jefferson, a huge unfinished coastal fortress

C) The Atocha treasure museum

D) A Spanish colonial mission

Answer · why

B) Fort Jefferson, a huge unfinished coastal fortress

It is the largest brick masonry structure in the Western Hemisphere and among US forts only Fort Monroe and Fort Adams are bigger.

Q 03/05

Roughly how many bricks went into Fort Jefferson?

A) About 1.6 million

B) About 160 million

C) More than 16 million

D) About 600,000

Answer · why

C) More than 16 million

It covers 16 acres of Garden Key; among US forts only Fort Monroe and Fort Adams are larger.

Q 04/05

Who gave the islands the name 'Tortugas' after visiting in June 1513?

A) Hernando de Soto

B) Pedro Menéndez de Avilés

C) Christopher Columbus

D) Juan Ponce de León

Answer · why

D) Juan Ponce de León

His men caught 160 sea turtles there; it is the second-oldest surviving European place-name in the United States.

Q 05/05

Why are the islands called 'Dry'?

A) They get almost no rain

B) They have no surface fresh water

C) Their sand never holds a footprint

D) Prohibition was enforced early there

Answer · why

B) They have no surface fresh water

That lack of water is why the fort was built with an elaborate rain-cistern system that mostly failed.