Fort York Historical Site - Military Installations on Waymarking.com

The settlement of modern Toronto began in 1793 when Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe built a garrison on the present site of Fort York. Fearful of war with the United States, Simcoe planned to establish a naval base at Toronto in order to control Lake Ontario. Simcoe also moved the Capital to Toronto from the exposed border town of Niagara. Civilian settlement followed and a community named York began to grow two kilometres east of the fort (York was renamed Toronto in 1834). In 1812, the United States declared war and invaded Canada. On the 27th of April 1813, the U.S. Army and Navy attacked York with 2,700 men on 14 ships and schooners. The defenders put up a strong fight but fell back to Fort York in the face of overwhelming odds, eventually abandoning the fort and town to the enemy. In the autumn of that year, the British returned to Toronto and built the fortification that stands today. Fort York’s cannon and earthworks became obsolete in the 1880s, although the army continued to use the fort for training, barracks, offices and storage until the 1930s. Fort York opened as an historic site museum in 1934.

Era: Napoleonic - WW I General Comments: Not listed Related web site: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   07/23/2018 NAVY-guy visited it 05/04/2012 Skyecat visited it 08/07/2011 stinger503 visited it 04/24/2011 ras258 visited it 02/19/2011 Timo Explorer visited it 02/02/2006 Iron_Giant visited it 08/24/2002 Barnie's Band of Gold visited it

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