Interesting note found about the town of St Augustine in Florida. Although the town was only defended by walls across the peninsular base for a period in the eighteenth century, the prime defensive structure - Castillo de San Marcos - remains in good repair as
the article by Tom Brennan illustrates. The link is from the 'Fortified Places' website run by
Dominic Goode, welcomes contributions.
Other former walled towns in the US include:
- New Amsterdam/New York ('Wall Street' is the give away!)
- Charleston, whose defences were apparently to be strengthened in 1745 to protect against "incursions of Indians...[and] country negroes... quiet at present but have not always been so" (Bruce P.H.[Fortifications Engineer] 'Memoirs' Dublin 1783) - interesting evidence of the threat posed by black American slaves, not so content with their degradation as apologists for slavery have sometimes suggested.
- Albany, the wall remnants of which town were reportedly lost to make a carpark.
Are other examples known?
I delivered the illustrated presentation (48 slides) which can be found in .pdf form here. A written version is in preparation from a transcript of the talk and Q&A session:
