Signal Hill, Newfoundland and Labrador
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
Signal Hill is a hill which overlooks the city of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Because of its strategic placement overlooking the harbour, fortifications have been placed on the hill since the Napoleonic wars. The United States maintained anti-aircraft guns on the hill during World War II.
Cabot Tower was built on the hill at the end of the 19th century to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and the 400th anniversary of John Cabot's landfall in 1497.
Before the days of radio, signal masts on the hill were used to send messages to ships entering St. John's harbour. In 1901, the first trans-Atlantic wireless message was received here by Guglielmo Marconi. This location has been designated a Canadian National Historic Site.
A nature trail exists behind Signal Hill, granting an impressive view of the Atlantic Ocean and a number of islands off Newfoundland's shore, running from the base of the hill to the peak.
External links
- Parks Canada site (http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/nl/signalhill/index_e.asp)
- Atlas of Canada Relief Map (http://atlas.gc.ca/site/english/search/relief?map_featureannotate_class_expression=ABQTT&map_chart=1+N%2F10&lat=47.5667&long=-52.6833&mapext=2972315.50039+857051.489837+2970940.07464+876582.636871&searchstring=Signal+Hill+National+Historic+Site&location1=NF&unique_key=ABQTT&map_featureannotate_class_symbol=arrow&layers=featureannotate)
