Brick Concrete Arch, Fort Adams, RI

Here we have a bit of masonry candy for those who are into historic concrete and brick.

This arch to an embrasure at Fort Adams is an oddity being made of a concrete with random brick as the aggregate. It is understood that the military engineer Colonel Joseph Gilbert Totten undertook an experimentation in the construction of masonry fortifications at Fort Adams, but it is something of a mystery that this one embrasure arch is composed of a brick concrete whereas the others around about are more traditional brick arches.

  

The concrete is quite weathered. Consider that it has probably had very little attention since, as we can only assume, it was built in the first half of the 19th century.

Note what looks like a vertical pencil line. It appears that after the concrete was placed that a render coat was smooth over the concrete and that then radial lines were drawn on the surface, possibly to give an impression of the arch not being concrete but an illusion of stonework.

Lean more about Fort Adams: "Willard Robinson notes in his detailed work on the fort that bricks for the vaulted casemates came from local kilns."