Cathcart Tower: Difference between revisions
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[[Category:Kingston, Ontario]] |
[[Category:Kingston, Ontario]] |
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[[Category:Towers]] |
[[Category:Towers in Canada]] |
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[[Category:National Historic Sites of Canada]] |
[[Category:National Historic Sites of Canada]] |
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Revision as of 07:17, 9 December 2008
Cathcart Tower is a Martello tower located on Cedar Island just off the shore from historic Fort Henry in Kingston, Ontario Canada. It is one of four such towers built in the 1840s to protect Kingston's harbour and the entrance to the Rideau Canal. Built in 1848, this limestone tower is 11 m high and 16,5 m in diameter.[1] It is surrounded by a shallow ditch and by a glacis extending to the shorelines on three sides. The guns of Cathcart Tower covered the eastern approaches of Kingston Harbour. Their construction was prompted by a dispute between Great Britain and the United States over the boundary between British Columbia and Oregon that threatened to lead to war and to the invasion of Canada.[2] When war was averted, Cathcart Tower was used for a time as a barracks for soldiers garrisoned at nearby Fort Henry. Eventually it was abandoned. It is part of the Kingston Fortifications National Historic Site of Canada and is within the boundaries of St. Lawrence Islands National Park. The tower is also classified as a CRM1 resource.