It's National Park Week, so....

...you can visit any national park this week for free! We went to Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, which is the fort that we see from our boat.  It was started in 1672 and is one of the oldest standing structures in North America. It has served six different flags, survived hurricanes, and withstood bombardments and sieges.  

Outside the Castillo de San Marcos

The Castillo (Spanish for castle), was built by the Spanish to protect their empire in America. The fort is star shaped when looked at from above; each corner of the fort is a diamond-shaped projection, or bastion, which helped to eliminate blind spots for the guards and increased firepower by allowing multiple cannons to fire on the same target, creating a crossfire effect. 

The courtyard had multiple purposes, it was where the soldiers would assemble and perform drills, but also where the towns people would live when they were attacked or under siege.  When the town was attacked by the English in 1702, there were 1500 townspeople and soldiers inside the Castillo for 51 days.

The Courtyard

The guards did not live here, but actually lived in town and came here to work everyday. But, guard duty was 24 hours, so they would have to sleep sometimes.

Some of the Sleeping Quarters

Entrance Door

One of the reasons this fort has survived so well is because of its construction, it's made out of a limestone that is formed from crushed shells called coquina. which could withstand enemy cannon fire.  The air pockets that are formed by these tiny shells are what give it its protective features, so instead of the wall collapsing from a cannon hitting it, the cannon would lodge itself into the wall and get stuck there. This limestone is native to the coast of northeast Florida and at the time was the only stone available for building. Luckily for them, it was better than granite or brick at protecting the fort. 

Coquina wall

Boys Love Cannons

Demonstration Time