Completed in 1910, commissioned in 1912, guns dismounted in 1944. Imagine this place when it was up and running, an active link in the Coastal Artillery defence system for Puget Sound. 1913, 1917, 1922, 1928, 1935, 1939, 1942 ... an active military post through all those years. The walls would have been clean, painted, sharp. No weeds in the gun emplacements. Orders being called down through tubes from the Battery Control Station. Men running to obey those orders. Moving shells, loading guns, taking readings, adjusting sights, firing practice rounds out into the Strait. No live ammunition ... there was never an enemy out there to shoot at. Did the officers ever bring chairs out to the roof of the Battery and sit in the afternoon sunshine? Did the rank and file ever lounge on the stairs, smoking cigarettes in their off-duty moments? So many drills, so much practice, but nothing ever happened. You'd have to be crazy to attack the cities of Puget Sound by sea ... it's a dead end. Look again. Imagine what it was like. Can you hear their footsteps on the concrete? Hear the echo of their voices? Feel the reverberation of the 12" guns? For all its military purpose, all those years of readiness, of practice rounds splashing into the water, Battery Kinzie is a peaceful place to spend an afternoon.