Citadel Hill

[TV_Tech]

Here is a photo of Historic Citadel Hill I just got from a good friend. Citadel Hill is also known as "Fort George" There is also George's Island which can be seen at the top of the photo (the small island). The large Island is McNabs Island. More on the hill can be found on wiki:

 

Fort George (named after King George II of Great Britain) is a National Historic Site in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and was established during Father Le Loutre's War to protect the protestant settlers against raids by the French, Acadians, and Wabanaki Confederacy (primary the Mi'kmaq). A series of four different defensive fortifications have occupied the summit of Citadel Hill since this time, with the construction and levelling resulting in the summit of the hill being dropped by ten to twelve metres. The first fort was simply a small redoubt which stood near the summit with a flagstaff and guardhouse.[1] No traces of any regular or permanent fortification appear on Citadel Hill until the commencement of the American Revolution.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citadel_Hill_%28Fort_George%29

 

Georges Island (named after George II of Great Britain) is a glacial drumlin and the largest island entirely within the harbour limits of Halifax Harbour located in Nova Scotia's Halifax Regional Municipality. The Island is the location of Fort Charlotte - named after King George's wife Charlotte. Fort Charlotte was built during Father Le Loutre's War, a year after Citadel Hill (Fort George). The island is now a National Historic Site.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George%27s_Island,_Halifax

 

McNabs Island is the largest island in Halifax Harbour located in Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada. It played a major role in defending Halifax Harbour and is now a provincial park. The island was first settled in 1780s by Peter McNab, and McNab family members lived on the island until 1934.[2]

Peter McNab's brother Captain John McNab, Nova Scotia Fencibles, lived with his daughter Catherine Susan Ann McNabb on McNab's Island. She married Joseph Howe on February 2, 1828.^[1]

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McNabs_Island

[Smiley]

Interesting to note that most fortifications (as opposed to redoubts of stockades) built by during the late 18th and early 19th centuries were star shaped. The points of the star allowed the defenders to cover the walls with aimed fire without having to shoot straight down. The use of more than four points to the star allowed each point to be covered by fire from two other points of the star. See link for photos of the Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor http://www.google.com/search?q=fort+mchenry&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=RVZ7UOmhFqy10QGnn4GgBw&ved=0CFQQsAQ&biw=739&bih=694....famed for withstanding the British bombardment during the war of 1812 and the poem "The Star Spangled Banner" which provides the words to the U.S. national anthem.

[Nan]

Great pic TV and it's interesting to be able to read a bit about the history of places like that and the stories about them.

[Koach]

Thanks for posting this TV, and Smiley. I did not know much of that, and it's very interesting.

[Stormy]

Excellent pic and very interesting information. Did you take that from your roof?

[TV_Tech]

I believe this photo was taken from a helicopter stormy. There are no buildings this tall in Halifax. I should have also mentioned the tunnels connecting Citadel Hill to George's Island, McNab's Island and Dartmouth on the other side of the harbour. They were used to run munitions and supplies to the forts from the Armories seen in the foreground (large brown brick building with a castle like appearance). That building is still in use today by the military. As you can see from the layout of the Islands, it would have been very difficult for the enemy to get a ship in past them.

[TV_Tech]

Halifax Explosion

 

The Halifax Explosion occurred on the morning of Thursday, December 6, 1917. SS Mont-Blanc, a French cargo ship fully laden with wartime explosives, collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo^[2] in the Narrows, a strait connecting the upper Halifax Harbour to Bedford Basin. Approximately twenty minutes later, a fire on board the French ship ignited her volatile cargo, causing a cataclysmic explosion that devastated the Richmond District of Halifax. Approximately 2,000 people were killed by debris, fires, and collapsed buildings, and it is estimated that nearly 9,000 others were injured.^[3] The blast was the largest man-made explosion prior to the development of nuclear weapons^[4] with an equivalent force of roughly 2.9 kilotons of TNT.^[5] In a meeting of the Royal Society of Canada in May 1918, Dalhousie University's Professor Howard L. Bronson estimated the blast at some 2.4 million kilograms of high explosive.^[6]

Mont-Blanc was under orders from the French government to carry her highly volatile cargo of explosives overseas to Bordeaux, France. At roughly 8:45 am, she collided at slow speed (one to one and a half mph) with the 'in-ballast' (without cargo) Imo, chartered by the Commission for Relief in Belgium to pick up a cargo of relief supplies in New York. The resultant fire aboard the French ship quickly grew out of control. Without adequate and accessible fire-fighting equipment, the captain, pilot, officers and men were forced to abandon her within a few minutes following the accident. Approximately 20 minutes later (at 9:04:35 am), Mont-Blanc exploded with tremendous force ^[7] Nearly all structures within a half-mile radius, including the entire community of Richmond, were completely obliterated. A pressure wave of air snapped trees, bent iron rails, demolished buildings, grounded vessels, and carried fragments of the Mont-Blanc for kilometres. Hardly a window in the city proper survived the concussion. Across the harbour, in Dartmouth, there was also widespread damage.^[3] A tsunami created by the blast wiped out the physical community of Mi’kmaw First Nations people that had lived in the Tuft's Cove area for generations. There were a number of casualties including five children who drowned when the tsunami came ashore at Nevin's Cove.^[8]

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion

[TV_Tech]

Halifax Explosion: The Aftermath and Relief Efforts (1917)

 

[Koach]

That was pretty interesting, TV_Tech.

I had never heard of the Halifax explosion before. It's amazing how destructive it was.

 

I visited the OKC bombing site, which was about 2000 lbs of explosive and it had ripped into buildings blocks away. The Halifax explosion was many, many times greater so I can imagine how strong the force from the explosion must have been.

 

Koach

[TV_Tech]

here is a photo of the hill from my balcony

[Nan]

Quite a nice view

[TV_Tech]

thanks Nan   where that lil white hut is on the left is where they've been firing off the noon canon for the last hundred or more years.  it still scares me when they fire it.  I'll try and catch a snap of that too.

[TV_Tech]

Noon Gun

 

[Koach]

That's very interesting, TV. thanks for posting

[TV_Tech]

Lawlor Island is one of the least know islands in Halifax harbour.  It's most recent use was that of a small pox quarantine center.  More on Lawlor Island can be found here:

 

http://www.pier21.ca/blog/steve-schwinghamer/lawlors-island-results

 

Nan will like the first couple photos.  They're of an old grave yard there with some mystery of unknown burials.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawlor_Island

 

Lawlor Island or Lawlor's Island is a small island near the mouth of Halifax Harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada. Measuring approximately 55 hectares (136 acres), it is located opposite MacCormacks Beach in Eastern Passage and McNabs Island in the Halifax Regional Municipality. The island is undeveloped woodland and the protected home of deer and osprey.

 

History

The Mi'kmaq people were the island's first inhabitants. On September 30, 1750, Captain Thomas Bloss was granted an island in Halifax Harbour which later bore his name. Bloss Island was one of many names used for the island until the late 19th century, when it became widely known as Lawlor Island. In 1758, the island bore the name Webb's Island. In 1792, it was referred to as Carroll's Island. In 1821, James Lawlor, into whose hands the island had passed, offered a reward for the conviction of persons who had stolen his sheep from the island. In this notice the island is referred to as McNamara's Island. Thomas Chandler Haliburton, in 1829, refers to the island as Duggan's Island. Shortly afterwards the island was referred to as Warren's Island.

 

Quarantine station

In 1866, after a fatal outbreak of cholera on McNabs Island, the Dominion Council of Canada purchased Lawlor's Island for use as a quarantine station.^{[dubious – discuss]} At first, the government had difficulty in finding the island's owner. Many local residents (most on the Eastern Passage side) protested against the idea of having infectious disease so close to their homes; some were concerned about germs that would blow across the fields and water into their homes. Many port officials and doctors also protested against the idea, being concerned that Lawlor's Island had no natural springs or fresh water, and also that the flow of ice during the winter would create difficulties in bringing boats in. An early quarantine officer was Dr William Wickwire, who assumed responsibility for quarantine duties after the indefinite suspension of Dr Gossip for incompetence. Dr Norman McKay took control of these duties soon afterwards. By 1900, officials had the island fitted with a deep-water wharf, a shallow-water wharf (on the Eastern Passage side), two hospitals and a convalescent building, a disinfection autoclave, baths with needle showers^{[clarification needed]}, a bacteria diagnosis laboratory, a first, second and third-class detention hall, an ambulance building, many residences and staff housing; also, the building that was referred to as "the long shed" or "German Hospital" on McNabs Island was taken down and reassembled on the west side of the island.

The buildings were not winterized, but by 1908 a winterized hospital and power plant had been built. Not long after World War I, a submarine cable was installed from Eastern Passage, receiving power from Dartmouth and on the highest point of land, right next to a frost-proof cement cistern built 20 years prior, a 360,000-litre (80,000 imperial gallon) water tower was erected, thus solving the problem of a steady flow of fresh water on the island.

With advances in medical science, the discovery of penicillin and vaccination programs, major infectious diseases were now a much reduced threat to public health, and the emergency use of Lawlor's Island as a quarantine station was falling rapidly. During the 1920s and 1930s, the cost of salaries, supplies, and services outweighed the benefits of quarantining minor infectious diseases on Lawlor's Island. Costs included telephone charges, uniforms and large quantities of drugs and medical supplies. Following the Paris International Sanitary Convention of 1926, the Canadian deputy minister of health decided that it would cease to house quarantine patients in May 1938.

The island was purchased by the Canadian government for use as a medical station during the Second World War, to treat venereal diseases brought back by servicemen from Europe. Today it is part of the McNabs Island Provincial Park Reserve.

[Nan]

So very interesting, it's great to learn about other places around the world.  Thanks for sharing it with us all TV

[Koach]

Very interesting, TV. Thanks