Georg's travel journal a detour.
Visiting Fort Niagara wasn't in our plans, but when we reached the fork in the road we decided to make a detour and visit it anyway.
Fort Niagara was a nice surprise, as it is restored to much of its former glory, all the way back to when the French built the first major parts of it.
The old fort presents a low profile from the land side, with the main fort protected by angled earth banks, ditches and palisades, creating open areas for rapid troop movements between the first line of defence and the brick-built walls of the main fort. A classic layout – only brick walls are no good against cannon-fire so the fort wasn't worth much even back then.
Gun-ports for small cannons contained inside the main fort's brick walls, allowed defenders to cover the open area just outside and the backside of their extended defences, with heavy fire. Elevated gun-positions inside the fort covered the land further in. At least I think this was the general idea when the different parts of the old fort was originally built.
the old fort.
The old plan from around 1767 shows the basic layout of the fort, but of course it doesn't look exactly like that anymore – if it ever did.
As the purpose of the fort changed over the years, so has its numbers, types and use of buildings. Most wooden buildings are gone now, while the more solid stone-buildings and other major details have been kept and/or restored.
Inside the main fortification, a few soldiers in old uniforms (from the British era, I believe), give us an impression of life at Fort Niagara back in the days it was an active fortification.
According to external sources Fort Niagara was better known as a center for drinking, brawling, whoring, and cheating than for its part in actual wars back in the British era. Sounds reasonable.
“the French Castle”.
“The French Castle” looks impressive enough, although parts of its outer walls have been in need of extensive repairs over the years in order to stay up. It is basically a two story thick-walled stone and mortar construction dating back to around 1726.
The building once contained the pretty modest living and working quarters for the common soldier and all sorts of craftsmen needed on a fort, and the somewhat better-looking quarters for higher ranking officers of the armies stationed here. First the French, then the British, then a bit back and forth between the Americans and the British before the Americans took permanent control this side of the lake.
As expected it is pretty dark inside this old stone building…
… but the view over Lake Ontario is pretty good on a good day.
guns at Fort Niagara.
Two autonomous gun towers placed as inner gates on the east and west side, from where relatively heavy guns could be aimed and fired in all directions. More heavy guns were clustered at various points on top of the fort's main walls.
Imagine all these cannons being fired in anger, with the smoke of burned black powder covering the area where soldiers prepared, reloaded, aimed and fired at an enimy. Must have been a pretty chaotic and scary scene the few times something like that actually happened, the last time some 190 years ago according to history.
The scene definitely looks pieceful on a sunny day like this. However, since I did actually spend my time in the Norwegian armed forces attached to an artillery battalion, I wouldn't have minded seeing these old cannons in action – for show.
June 29th.
about:
On vacation in the Northeastern United States, early in the summer of 2007.
recreated:
- date: 07.may.2008
- by: Georg Sørtun