[Tribune7]

All those cities had significant harbor defenses, some of which you can still visit today.

[CatoRenasci]

The state of those harbor defenses in the 1890's was not so great. Lots of left over civil war artillery. The modern coastal defenses were not really in place unitl after the Spanish American War. Most of the installations you'll see were either built before 1865 or between 1895 and 1945.