Fort sur la Rivière aux Boeufs, also called Fort le Boeuf, was the second in a chain of four French forts intended to connect Lake Erie to the Ohio River. Men and materials were portaged to French Creek, where bateaux carried them on to French settlements in Louisiana. Construction began in the summer of 1753 and was completed in the fall. In December 1753, George Washington visited the fort to demand that the French withdraw, telling Captain Jacques Legardeur de St. Pierre that the British considered the French occupation an encroachment on British soil. St. Pierre refused to withdraw, and armed hostilities followed the next spring. Support from Fort le Boeuf helped repel Braddock's threat against Fort Duquesne in 1755, and the completion of Fort Machault in 1756 eased some pressure on Fort le Boeuf. After Fort Duquesne fell to the British in 1758 and Fort Niagara fell in 1759, Fort le Boeuf was left vulnerable, and the French abandoned and burned it in 1759.