After the English colony at Jamestown survived its rough beginning, Virginia was ready by 1710 to expand its boundaries. Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood sought to defend the colony from Indian threats, slave uprisings, and the French, and in 1714 he had two frontier forts built: Fort Christanna on the southern edge of Virginia’s settlements and the five-sided Fort Germanna along the Rapidan River guarding the northern settlements. Strategically placed above the fall line between Virginia’s Piedmont and tidewater regions, Fort Germanna stood at the center of the corridor between the mountains and the English settlements. In the spring of 1714, Spotswood settled the fort with 42 German immigrants—men, women, and children—from a region known for silver and iron mining, intending them to serve as a buffer on the British Empire’s frontier while they built a settlement and searched for iron for his new iron industry. Spotswood visited in 1716 and, after staying there five days with a group of colonial gentlemen, set out with Indian guides, rangers, and servants on the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe Expedition across the Blue Ridge Mountains. In 1717 he brought in a second group of about 80 German immigrants under seven-year indenture, and by 1718 the Germanna community had grown to as many as 200 inhabitants, already outgrowing the small frontier fort. The name Germanna combined the identity of the German settlers with that of Queen Anne, who reigned when the outpost was established.