Travel Guide · October 14, 2026
Driving Through History: Tybee Island Road
Everybody Asks About the Beach
"How far is the beach?" I hear it before the car door closes. Every single time. Somebody lands at Savannah/Hilton Head International, slides into my back seat, and the first thing out of their mouth is the beach. "About thirty minutes," I tell them. "And you're gonna love the drive." Here's the thing nobody tells the tourists: the road to Tybee Island is one of the best history lessons in America, and it doesn't cost you a dime. You just have to look out the window. Most people don't. They're on their phones. I get it — I do the same thing when I'm the passenger. But I'm telling you, US-80 East out of Savannah is a whole thing. We roll out of the airport, cut through town, and then it's marshes. Miles of them. Golden grass, winding creeks, egrets doing whatever egrets do. (Standing around looking judgmental, mostly.) And somewhere in the middle of all that pretty, there's a brick fort where the Civil War changed forever. Most of my passengers have no idea. That's fine. That's why I'm writing this.
Fort Pulaski: Where the War Changed Forever
Okay, history-guy mode: ON. Sorry. It happens. About twenty minutes into the drive, off to the right on Cockspur Island, you'll see Fort Pulaski. Big brick walls, looks like a movie set. In April 1862, Union forces parked rifled cannons on the far shore and pounded that fort into surrender in about 30 hours. That doesn't sound dramatic until you understand what it meant. Before Pulaski, everybody thought brick forts were basically indestructible. After Pulaski, every military engineer on earth had to go back to the drawing board. The rifled cannon changed warfare the way the smartphone changed... well, everything. One afternoon on a marshy island in Georgia, and the rules of war got rewritten. I drive past it sometimes three, four times a week. And every time I think about the guys inside those walls — Confederate soldiers who believed that brick would hold — hearing a sound nobody had ever heard before. Cannon rifling. The future arriving whether they were ready or not. That's the thing about history. It doesn't knock.
The Men Who Didn't Wait for Freedom
Now here's the part I really care about. When Union forces took the Sea Islands in late 1861 — the islands scattered between Savannah and Charleston — something extraordinary happened. Thousands of enslaved people were suddenly, practically overnight, free. No plan. No roadmap. Nobody had prepared them for the question: what comes after freedom? They figured it out themselves. They built schools. They farmed abandoned plantations. They formed communities. And the men — the men did something that still gives me chills — they picked up rifles. The 1st South Carolina Volunteers, formed right there in the Sea Islands in 1862, was one of the first Black regiments to fight for the Union. They didn't wait for somebody to hand them freedom. They fought for it. I wrote two novels about this — the Sea Islands Freedom series — because I couldn't not write it. My main character is fictional. But the regiment was real. The courage was real. These were men who had every reason to believe the world would never give them anything, and they decided to take their future with both hands anyway. When I drive that road, I'm driving through their country. The marshes, the islands, the oak trees draped in Spanish moss — it all looks the same as it did when they marched it. That's not a metaphor. Go out there. It's the same.
Tybee Is More Than Sand
So then you get to Tybee, and everybody runs for the beach, and I don't blame them — it's a great beach. But look around a little. The Tybee Lighthouse has been standing there since 1867 (and there was a lighthouse on that spot going back to 1736). Fort Screven guarded the mouth of the Savannah River through two world wars. This little island has been watching over that river for going on three centuries. My advice? Do the beach in the morning. Do the lighthouse in the afternoon. And on the drive back, ask your driver about the fort. If it's me, I will absolutely talk your ear off. You've been warned.
This Is Why I Love This Drive
Look, I drive people to the airport for a living. It's honest work and I'm good at it. But this particular run — SAV to Tybee, Tybee to SAV — it's my favorite, because it's the one where I get to be a driver and a history nerd at the same time. The history I write about in my books? It's the ground I drive on every day. The marshes, the forts, the islands — that world is my commute. How many people get to say that? So next time you land at Savannah airport and you need to get to Tybee Island — or anywhere, really — book a ride with Live Oak Airport Taxi and look out the window on US-80. And if you want the full commentary track, just ask. I know a guy. (It's me. I'm the guy.) Fixed fare upfront. No surge, no meter, no surprises. Just a local driver who'll get you there safe — and might accidentally teach you something on the way. Serving Savannah, Tybee Island, Pooler, Richmond Hill, Hilton Head, Bluffton, and Beaufort.
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Midweek in Savannah moves a little slower — and so does my calendar. Tuesday and Wednesday rides are wide open: airport runs, Tybee, Hilton Head, downtown. Book at liveoaktaxisav.com — the price you see is the price you pay.
Meet Your Driver
You're riding with the man who wrote the history of this coast
I'm Gary "Chris" Lamb — Savannah local, history graduate, and author of the Sea Islands Freedom novels, set right here during the Civil War. The ground I write about is the ground I drive on every day. Book your ride, and if you're curious about the stories under these streets, just ask.