Fort Matanzas National Monument

Fort Matanzas National Monument, 14 miles south of Saint Augustine, Florida, was established in 1924 to preserve the 228-acre site of a Spanish colonial fortress on Rattlesnake Island at the mouth of the Matanzas River. It was built in 1740 of stone by convict labor to protect Saint Augustine from British attack via the inland waterway to the south. It consisted of a small quadrangle of sloping stone walls surmounted by a tall, rectangular watchtower built on piles driven into the mud. In 1743 it repulsed a British invasion and was never besieged again.