St. Augustine Sea Wall

This portion of the St. Augustine sea wall, extending from King Street to the south end of St. Francis Barracks, was constructed during the period 1833 to 1844. The coquina wall with granite top protected homes and businesses on the waterfront. Stone for the wall was quarried across the Matanzas River on Anastasia Island, and the granite coping came from Pennsylvania and Connecticut. Together with the refurbishing of the Castillo de San Marcos, renamed Fort Marion by the Army, the project was an early example of work assigned to graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, the first engineering school in the United States. It was one of the earliest federally funded projects in the Territory of Florida. The West Point graduates who designed and supervised the work were 1st Lieutenant Stephen Tuttle, 1st Lieutenant Francis L. Dancy, 1st Lieutenant Henry W. Benham, and 1st Lieutenant Jeremy F. Gilmer.

St. Augustine, Florida · United States