I will admit that I fell head over heels for the concept of the proposed downtown National Coast Guard Museum as soon as it was unveiled.

It would both energize the downtown and complement one of Connecticut's finest buildings, the monumental Union Station.

And it would be smack in the middle of a transportation hub.

I supposed then that the gritty details of building in a low flood zone, on fill, had been resolved.

After all, there were pretty renderings of the glassy, glamorous building literally hanging out over the river.

Now that we know the still-looming flood issues of this "difficult site," as the state's chief environmental regulator calls it, I think museum planners need to accept a dose of reality.

Indeed, no finished detailed engineered drawings for this difficult site, to show regulators, have yet been produced.

Advocates for building the museum at Fort Trumbull are getting bolder, even as they are shushed by downtown supporters.

There is certainly a cloud of uncertainty over the downtown site.

How about a compromise?

Build the museum at Fort Trumbull, where it belongs, alongside a working Coast Guard Station, near a spectacular state park, and appropriately enough, the original place where the service trained its officers.

But also build a museum gateway downtown, at the proposed site in front of Union Station.

A couple of big launches could shuttle visitors back and forth on a short trip to Fort Trumbull.

These could run every 15 minutes or so year-round.

After all, New York City is investing billions in year-round water taxis that will supplement subway and bus service.

It would not be hard to accomplish this on this small scale.

It would create an interesting and appropriate experience for visitors who, after all, are coming to learn more about the Coast Guard.

What better way to do that than ride on a boat?

All the same benefits of putting the museum downtown, from the convenience of rail and ferry links to access to stores and restaurants, would apply.

The downtown also would benefit from museum visits.

Union Station could become a welcome center for the museum. Visitors would walk over the grade crossing to get on launches, the same way travelers on northbound trains now do.

Thousands upon thousands of people pass over that grade crossing every summer.

You could buy a lot of launch power, with new docks etc., for the $20 million Gov. Dannel Malloy has pledged for a big bridge over the railroad electrification wires.

It might also be possible to enter the new museum directly at Fort Trumbull. And those visitors could ride a launch downtown and back.

Who wouldn't do that?

The downtown gateway and Fort Trumbull museum also still would work well with the new Thames River Heritage Park, widening visitor options with visits to historic sites in the City of Groton and the USS Nautilus upriver.

Indeed, making a launch ride a part of the museum visit is a natural segue to luring people on to the water taxis for the new heritage park.

I suspect a museum on a more traditional site at Fort Trumbull would be cheaper to build. That might make fundraising a bit less daunting than it is now.

There is also more room to expand in the future at Fort Trumbull. So maybe it would be appropriate to start smaller, with less money to raise.

From the city's perspective, a museum at Fort Trumbull might jump-start some other development on the peninsula.

Finally, it would bring some closure for the city on the eminent domain saga.

A museum celebrating the heroism of the Coast Guard certainly would be a better use of the land, a more satisfying conclusion for the neighborhood, than the suburban-style apartment complexes that have been proposed so far.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com