The Castillo de San Marcos stands on the waterfront of St. Augustine, Florida, built by Spain between 1672 and 1695 to defend its oldest permanent settlement in North America. It is constructed of coquina, a soft local limestone formed from compressed shell fragments, whose porous structure absorbed cannon fire by compressing rather than shattering, giving the fort unusual resilience under bombardment. Laid out with four diamond-shaped bastions in the star-fort style typical of the period, it is the oldest masonry fortification surviving in the continental United States, and it changed hands between Spain, Britain and the United States over its history without ever falling to a direct assault.
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