Kingston — Capital, Harbour & Fortifications
Murney Tower
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Transcript
Murney Tower was built in 1846 as part of Kingston's harbour defence system.
It is a Martello tower, a British defensive form adapted from Mediterranean examples and then modified for North American conditions.
The thick limestone walls, ditch and artillery positions were designed to resist attack from both land and water.
Parks Canada identifies the Kingston towers as the final group of Martello towers constructed in British North America, with design improvements addressing weaknesses in earlier versions.
No American attack came.
The tower therefore preserves a threat that remained hypothetical.
That is one reason fortifications are such useful historical evidence. A battle site shows what happened. A fortress often shows what governments feared might happen.
Nineteenth-century Kingston feared the United States enough to reshape its shoreline in stone.