Fort Niagara, New York State

August 20, 2011 – After stopping in Youngstown, NY for a few minutes so that I could photograph some of Youngstown’s painted fire hydrants, we headed on to the point of land where Fort Niagara was located. It is a fort with quite a history since it occupies a strategic location where the Niagara River empties into Lake Ontario and was important in times of trade as well as times of battle.

Unlike many forts that are surrounded by today’s cities, Fort Niagara is surrounded by parkland and this contributes to a sense of what it might have been like a couple of hundred years earlier. The undeveloped space available allows the visitor to get a real feel for what approaching the fort’s walls from the outside might have felt like.

Any enemy approaching for the land side would find the approach most unwelcoming and face musket, mortar and cannon fire from many possible angles if they tried to enter through the north wall sally port.