The Castillo de San Marcos can be found on the shores of Matanzas Bay in the city of St Augustine, Florida. It is the oldest masonry fort in the US. The walls reach 33 feet high and are 12 feet thick. This fort took 23 years to build.
The fort was designed by the engineer lgnacio Daza. They stared building in 1962, most of the work was done by Native Americans from a local mission. Some additional skilled workers were brought in from Havana, Cuba. The fort was completed in 1695.
The Spanish used coquina to build the fort. This is a limestone consisting almost entirely of shelly fossils. The coquina was most likely used, because it was the only material resembling stone that could be found on the shoreline of Florida. This turned out to be
Many classical styles are featured in Thomas Jefferson's house Monticello. Chief among these are the Greek and Roman influences. The porch of Monticello consists of a post and lintel architectural structure, with the columns and the pediment on top. The post and lintel structure -the use of columns and pediments- is Greek. Around the windows we see a post and lintel structure with the posts on the sides holding up the top of the window frame, which is also of classical Greek influence. On the front door we again see the post and lintel structure with columns on either side supporting a Greek pediment. The dome atop Monticello comes from Roman root although most Roman domes were not octagonal. That would be a more modern spin on this Roman structure.
The house was built in 1917 by William Bowers Bourn, a San Francisco millionaire whose wealth came from gold mining . Construction of the large property took 2 years, while it took 12 years to build the formal gardens, which were completed in 1929. Its name was created by Bourn, using the first 2 letters from the key words of his credo: “Fight for a just cause; Love your fellow man; Live a good life.” After the deaths of Bourn and his wife in 1936, it was purchased by William Roth, another prominent San Franciscan, who pr...
Travertine TRAVERTINE is a form of massive calcium carbonate, CaCO3 resulting from deposition by springs or rivers. It is often beautifully colored and banded as a result of the presence of iron compounds or other (e.g., organic) impurities. This material is variously known as calc-sinter and calcareous tufa and (when used for decorative purposes) as onyx marble, Mexican onyx, and Egyptian or Oriental alabaster. Travertine is generally less coarse-grained and takes a higher polish than stalactite and stalagmite, which are similar in chemical composition and origin. Travertine, the stone of the Colosseum and St. Peters as well as of several structures in New York and Philadelphia, is not a volcanic tufa but calcareous sediment that was deposited on the ground by the hot springs that first began to flow during the earliest eruptions of the Alban volcanoes. The best quality, in fact the only reliable one in Latium, is that which is found between Bagni and the Sabine hills below Tivoli. Lanciani, who has fascinatingly described the quarries there, estimated that five and a half million cubic meters of stone had been extracted from the ancient quarry alone. And yet, because of its position under a flat grass-grown plain, the Romans did not discover the existence of this remarkable stone till after the middle of the second century B. C.; and even after that they failed for a century to develop a system of extracting the stone in a sufficiently easy way to make the extensive use of it practicable. In the later decades of the second century B. C. it displaced peperino for inscriptional monuments for obvious reasons. Its employment in large structures cannot with certainty be posited before the construction of the Mulvian bridge in 109,...
Have you ever thought about the history of St. Augustine, Fl. Spanish conquistador Pedro Menendez settled St. Augustine in August 28, 1565. He settled St. Augustine for Three reasons, Religion, Treasure, and Colonization. Spain's only troubles with the land is to drive away the French and keep their gold and silver safe.
A few miles north of the Sunglow Pier, you’ll find one of Daytona Beach’s icons. The historic pier — it dates to 1925 — juts 1,000 feet into the Atlantic surf. It’s in the middle of all the action, just north of where Main Street meets A1A, Florida’s coastal
Jefferson started his construction of Monticello by leveling his mountaintop and setting down on paper sketchy visions of the house. He then prepared the mechanical working drawings, which he taught himself to do. The materials needed to construct Monticello were found in the area. He used his own trees for timber and took stone blocks for the foundation out of his mountain. The bricks were even fired in Monticello's own mountaintop kiln. He studied
After a volcanic eruption, they would look for volcanic tuff, or hardened ash, to carve their statues out of. They would chip away at the wall until the structure was only held in position by one stone “kickstand”. Once the sculpture was complete, it would be broken off its keel, slid down the cliff of tuff (horizontally), and the coral or obsidian eyes would be added as a finishing touch. At this stage in the process, the monument was ready to be transported to its ahu, or a stone platform/foundation that held a few
In order to build this city, the Incans used stone tools, bronze tools, and chisels. The materials they used were mud, clay, adobe, and granite blocks. Each block weighed fifty tons! They would thatch the roofs with tree trunks and straw. After the buildings were constructed, the Incan people would smooth the stones with sand, mud, and clay to make the structures look polished.
Then, Juana pull herself to the path of the border city of Mexico, Tijuana. It is when she met Adelina Vasquez who worked her way into prostitution as a way of survival in Tijuana. In the article of Then and Now: US Policy Towards Central American Fuels Child Refugee Crisis stated that, “An indigenous Mayan who then spoke Spanish but no English, she faced sexual violence and dehydration along the way—but survived.” (Schivone) The difference between difference and life changing began when they met because they changed each other like no other could because they were both searching for some sort of freedom. Adelina subconsciously wanted to get away from her boyfriend who pimped her out as a working girl while Juana believed that if she were to
Lime mortar the earliest form of concrete was invented by the Egyptian way before the time of the Roman republic. A mixture of lime derived from limestones, sand, and water gave a unique property to the material we know as concrete. The Romans apparently understood the number of advantages this unique mixture of building material offered which they called “opus caementicium” after one of the particular ingredients, caementa stone. The Roman style concrete was thicker than the concrete used today, therefore, working with it required a different technic.
Old styles of fortifications became easily destroyed by newly invented canons and were eventually replaced by star-forts. Star forts started in Italy, and then spread throughout Europe and other parts of the world. It was significant because it wasn’t easily destroyed by most cannons, and it could be easily defended against waves of infantry attacks. They are called star forts because the bird-eye view was that of a star, which allowed at least two points to have visual contact with attacking infantry, no matter the
The German Pavilion, later known as the Barcelona Pavilion, gently hovers above the ground on a low raised platform, in Barcelona Spain. Recognized as the one of the initial expressions of Germany taking a step towards representing themselves in a more modern approach. the German Pavilion was the face of Germany after the first world war as an act of departure and resistance against classically fixed Germany. Commissioned by the German Reich’s government, for the installation hosting of King Alfonoso XIII and German officials, the Pavilion was a rare project for which Meis Van De Rohe was provided no brief nor concept to follow, easily becoming one of his more challenging works confronted.
The first castles built (Motte and Bailey) were made of wood and quick to build, but they were burnt and worn down easily, so the next castles were made of stone. (Square keeps) They were tall, strong, large and lasted long, but attackers would surround the castle and wait for ages for the people inside to come out. The third castles (Shell Keeps) were even stronger, but because they were made of heavy stone, they might collapse. So finally, the fourth castles (concentric) were built and they were the strongest, largest most defensive and most expensive castles built.
The Alcazar in Madrid was originally built by the Moors as a fortress in the second half of the 9th century. The grandson of the Catholics kings, Emperor Carlos I, made important architectural reforms in the Alcazar, where he stayed during his visits to the city. He turned the old and uncomfortable castle into a home with the renaissance taste of the period. It was a time of development and boom for the city, therefore creating a foundation for many churches and convents.
Fort San Pedro, one of the known tourist spots in Cebu, is a Spanish camp built on 1565. It has a fortification wall with a thickness