About the author  ⁄ Craig M. Bennett, Jr., P.E.

Craig M. Bennett, Jr., P.E., is head of Bennett Preservation Engineering in Charleston, South Carolina, where he additionally teaches in the Clemson/College of Charleston joint graduate program in historic preservation. He can be reached at cbennett@bennettpe.com.

Drayton Hall is considered one of the finest, if not the finest, example of Palladian architecture in America (Figure 1). This 1740s plantation house sits on the banks of the Ashley River, near Charleston, South Carolina. It is owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is maintained in roughly the same condition in which it was received from the Drayton family in the 1970s.

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Fort Jefferson National Monument is located in the Dry Tortugas, a group of sand bars 70 miles west of Key West, Florida. This great pile of 16 million bricks surrounding coral concrete cores was originally intended to defend a harbor for ships of the US Navy, allowing the naval forces to control shipping through the Straits of Florida and, ultimately, to control trade through the Gulf of Mexico and into the Mississippi River.

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