

The Beautiful Geometry of 18th-Century Forts - benbreen
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2015/01/07/history_of_fortifications_british_forts_in_the_american_colonies.html

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Isamu
The angular design was so that guns were in place to sweep attackers from
every wall. That is, some of the guns are able, without having to be moved, to
fire close to and parallel to every wall.

No attacker would be able to rush the wall and remain there in relative safety
(given the benefit of covering fire) and set to work breaching the wall.

Note the "Plan of Johnston Fort at Cape Fear", where the angle of the top left
point seems to be inaccurate, such that the covering cannon at the base of the
upper right point can't quite shoot along the wall of the upper left point.

Also note the Bristol Ferry Fort, with it's not-quite-star design, can't quite
protect the small sides of the points, given the angles of the gun ports (if
accurate.)

See
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_fort](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_fort)

Also it seems interesting that the designer of the Ontario Fort has put
heavier walls toward Lake Ontario, where ship cannon may be used by an
attacker. It was the opposite case in Pittsburgh, where one would expect the
main attack by land.

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cju
In France, many forts has been build by a military engineer named Vauban[1] in
the 17th century. His life is highly impressive. He worked a lot on
fortifications and breaking of sieges. Outside of military building, he has
been a scientist and an economist with modern views on taxes.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9bastien_Le_Prestre_de_V...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9bastien_Le_Prestre_de_Vauban)

~~~
omegant
I highly recommend to visit Hôtel des Invalides war museum in Paris. It´s
worth the time just to admire the collection of (huge) scale models of the
fortified cities in the France of the S XVIII. They are impressive and show
how the cities used to be. They are originals from the time, perfectly
conserved, they were originally created to better appreciate the capabilities
of a fortification.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_des_Plans-
Reliefs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_des_Plans-Reliefs)

I must add that Paris used to have an impressively long bastion wall (94
bastions!), that it´s little known.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiers_wall](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thiers_wall)

~~~
demallien
You can actually still see one-off the Vauban forts at sissy les moulineux, on
the outskirts of Paris. It's about 1km from where I live :)

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saalaa
I don't want to be pedantic but.. *Issy-les-moulineux

~~~
cju
*Issy-les-Moulineaux (with -eaux) !

~~~
saalaa
Are you being pedantic? OK, I admit failed miserably.

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Retric
There is a common misconception that cannons rendered tall walls useless
because they could easily distroy them. Rather guns benefited less when
shooting from tall walls than arrows reducing ther advantage. Plus defensively
they protected less of the inner structure as cannon could fire on taller
archs and still be effective. So, it came down to a simple cost benifit
analysis and ditches are fairly cheap to construct vs. the extra thick walls
needed vs cannon.

~~~
mcguire
Plus, putting large cannon on the top of a thin wall is not the best idea,
structurally.

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bane
Not as beautiful, but the fortifications at Rhodes are unbelievably impressive
and after 1481 were built to withstand cannon barrage. The Knights of St. John
had _unbelievable_ financial resources available to them and the fortress was
state of the art at the time and have the distinction of never having been
defeated in battle. Despite being attacked several times by very large, _very_
determined forces.

The story of how Rhodes eventually fell to the Ottomans is even more proof at
what an astonishing fortress the place is [1] - the walls never fell.

The siege [2], (the second major attempt) which took from June to December of
1522, with nearly quarter million men assaulting, and only 7,500 defending,
ended only when both sides were too exhausted to fight any further. The
Ottomans had lost half their forces during the siege, and the Knights of St.
John had dwindled down to about 1,500, but still defending. Exhausted the
Ottoman forces (under Suleiman the Magnificent) offered a deal. Leave in
peace, taking what wealth you can, and you'll be granted safe passage off of
the island. After some back and forth, the Knights took the offer and
eventually ended up in Malta where they started over again (and engaged in yet
another round of incredible impenetrable fortress building).

When the Ottomans took control, they patched up the damage they did and
maintained it basically as-is for 400 years.

Walking around the fortress is like receiving a master class in fortress
engineering and design. It's hard to understand exactly how a fortress like
this could repel so many until you walk up to some of the approaches and start
counting how many cannons could shoot at you simultaneously in crossfire.
Trying to enter away from a main approach (like over a wall) meant climbing up
and down several layers of very tall walls [3], essentially forcing you to
trap yourself in a canyon where more clean lines of fire were aimed at you.
It's not just high walls, it's interlocking pieces that slow, route and line
up attackers to be slaughtered by the tens of thousands.

The fortress presented an unsolvable puzzle no attacker could overcome.

1 -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortifications_of_Rhodes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortifications_of_Rhodes)

2 -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Rhodes_(1522)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Rhodes_\(1522\))

3 -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rhodes_old_town_Greece_2....](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rhodes_old_town_Greece_2.jpg)

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jws
From the tail end of these, Fort Jefferson down off the tip of Florida is a
fabulous example. The largest masonry structure in the United States. 16
million bricks, a hexagon about 150 meters on a side. It pretty much takes up
an entire island.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Jefferson,_Florida](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Jefferson,_Florida)

Google has great street view walkarounds of it:
[https://www.google.com/maps/place//@24.6285891,-82.873422,37...](https://www.google.com/maps/place//@24.6285891,-82.873422,370m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x88ce55d10406f8b0:0x5bb10efd57331ab0?hl=en)

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brudgers
Fort Jefferson, unlike the earlier fortifications was largely obsolete when
completed because rifled artillery could efficiently reduce brick walls to
rubble. See Fort Pulaski
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Pulaski_National_Monume...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Pulaski_National_Monument)

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azernik
These are not nearly the most impressive examples of this kind of
fortification; as North America was a relatively peripheral area in the 18th
century, only relatively small and cheap versions of star forts were built
there.

For larger-scale examples:

[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fortbourtange.jpg](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fortbourtange.jpg)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_Geneva_in_1841.jpg](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_Geneva_in_1841.jpg)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coevorden.jpg](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Coevorden.jpg)

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rosstex
I read this as "18th-Century Fonts"... which I would also totally expect to
find on this page.

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robinhoodexe
I'm glad I wasn't the only one... Although this is kinda interesting as well.

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SideburnsOfDoom
Another example: "The Castle" in Cape Town, South Africa is actually a fort
built between 1666 and 1679 by the Dutch East India Company and has the same
five-pointed structure.

And is a national monument, as it is the oldest existing colonial building in
the country.

[http://www.castleofgoodhope.co.za/](http://www.castleofgoodhope.co.za/)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_of_Good_Hope](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_of_Good_Hope)

See also "Star fort":
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_fort](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_fort)

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effdee
If you like this kind of "architecture" you should definitely visit Rocroi if
you ever happen to be in (the north of) France:

[https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=49.925021,4.520338&spn...](https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=49.925021,4.520338&spn=0.009725,0.021436&t=k&z=16)

edit:

Palmanova in the north of Italy also looks nice:

[https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=45.905658,13.310108&sp...](https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=45.905658,13.310108&spn=0.021023,0.042872&t=k&z=15)

~~~
bazzargh
Hmm, it's not the one I'd pick. I cycled through Rocroi a couple of years ago,
it's much more impressive from the air than it is on the ground - you're
mainly looking at earthworks, and can't really see the plan. I passed through
Verdun the next day, it's similarly disappointing - you can't see it until
you're close by, then it's just a wall. Vauban fortifications with the
advantage of high ground are far more photogenic on foot, eg Belfort and
Briançon.

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ogig
I'll add another example; La Mola in Menorca [1], built by the English
starting in 1708. I was going to post a google map link but strangely it is a
censured zone. I guess it still has other uses besides tourism.

[1] [http://www.fortalesalamola.com/images/fortaleza-
historia/01-...](http://www.fortalesalamola.com/images/fortaleza-
historia/01-la-mola-menorca.jpg) [http://www.fortalesalamola.com/en/the-
fortress-history/](http://www.fortalesalamola.com/en/the-fortress-history/)

~~~
omegant
Is still a military zone, but has no strategic use now a days.

It´s just a museum, were you can visit the old fortress and a coastal
artillery battery from the beginning of sXX that used the only Vickers 385/45
remaining from the times of the first world war (huge cannons that were also
mounted on Battleships).

La Mola didn´t see action, and in fact it just became obsolete just before
being finished (it never got the cannons) because new rifled canons with
longer range made close fire and old fortress design completely infective (The
bunker and underground fortification era began).

I thing it´s more impressive the fortress that it´s at the other side of the
bay, la fortaleza de San Felipe, demolished by the Spanish government once
menorca passed again to Spanish control because it was so big that they were
unable to man it. [http://descobreixmenorca.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/03/dmen...](http://descobreixmenorca.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/03/dmenorca_britanica_sant_felip_3.jpg)

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choult
Deal Castle in the UK is also a great example of a symmetrical castle design:

[https://goo.gl/maps/NuyXw](https://goo.gl/maps/NuyXw)

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davidw
I visited this one in Pula, Croatia:
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pula,+Croatia/@44.8699685,...](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pula,+Croatia/@44.8699685,13.8460665,298m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x477cd2de09337b6d:0x72324a3a7b4e580d)

I don't recollect when it was built though.

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wtbob
Some of these star forts survived into the present day: Fort Monroe[1] was
decommissioned in 2011. It's a real shame that it was, but c'est la vie (or,
in this case, c'est la guerre).

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Monroe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Monroe)

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arethuza
Also Fort George, built to help pacify the Scottish Highlands in the aftermath
of the 1745/1746 rebellion:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_George,_Scotland](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_George,_Scotland)

Still an army base to this day - although also open to visitors, well worth a
visit.

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pan69
The town I grew up in:

[https://www.google.com/maps/@51.4988114,3.6181717,2784m/data...](https://www.google.com/maps/@51.4988114,3.6181717,2784m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en)

Just occurred me, it looks a little bit like a Simpsons character.

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cmdkeen
For a rather asymmetric alternative Gibraltar is a fascinating visit. The
tunnels are amazing, they're still rediscovering parts, not surprising given
there are more miles of tunnel in the Rock than there are miles of road on the
surface.

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thomholwerda
The Dutch city of Willemstad is a perfect example of this.

[https://www.google.com/maps/@51.6923818,4.4397462,1155m/data...](https://www.google.com/maps/@51.6923818,4.4397462,1155m/data=!3m1!1e3)

