The Narrows 2/14/21

Fort Amherst sits at the tip of the St. John’s harbor entrance in Newfoundland. The area is called the narrows because a tight channel, with a mountain on each side, runs west before sharply turning south, opening into the man-made harbor on the edge of the city.

The English recaptured St. John’s from the French in 1762 toward the end of the French and Indian War. Initial fortifications were built at the site of the fort in the 1770s, but over time the point mainly the site for light houses – the first built in 1810 and the most recent on in 1951. WWII fortifications against German U-boats are still in place today.

The fort, and Signal Hill atop the higher mountain on the other side of the narrows, are today both Canadian National Historic sites. Signal Hill is a great place for a bird’s-eye view of the harbor and St. John’s, as well as for spotting whales and icebergs (yes, that is an iceberg near shore in the top photo) in the north Atlantic. In 1901, Guglielmo Marconi received the first transatlantic "wireless" signal from Ireland at Signal Hill.