Fort Matanzas  Nation Monument - St Augustine Florida

A small Fort perched on what was once the mouth of the river of the same name. Primarily this Fort was built in 1740, to fight off the British and keep marauders and other enemy navies from sailing up the river and attacking St.. Augustine  and Castillo De San Marcos from the rear.

 Throughout its useful history, the possession of the Fort change hands several times and each possessor left their footprint there in the form of the artillery that they left behind and the changes in the architecture of the Fort itself.

The cannons of the time could shoot up to one mile and were very effective at keeping enemies from entering the mouth of the river. Since then the sediments have built up farther out and where river mouth once was, is now a peninsula jutting out and nearly blocking it.  Around the same time as the blockage was forming the technology on cannons had improved with the advent of rifling, so now the battles were waged from greater distances away. (editors note: Territorial waters used to be 1 mile as limited by the cannons of old and was modified to 3 miles when the rifling of cannons came into use. Currently territorial waters are 12 miles and is no longer tied to the effective range of artillery as with cruise missiles the range is in the hundreds of miles - just one of the things  learned at Fort Matanzas)

The Matanzas estuary, provides a natural habitat rich in wildlife with the salt marsh, scrub, and maritime hammock now protecting endangered and threatened species. Good location for Bird Watchers

To get there you follow the signs placed along the local highways and arrive at a dock where a ranger takes you over to the Fort by boat. It is free and the guide/rangers are most informative. The whole tour takes about 20 minutes so you could probably squeeze it in.

Admission is Free

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