My memory of El Morro is of a cool stone archway, protecting us from the heat of the Puerto Rican sun.

My memory of Old San Juan is… the very, very well armed and armored police.

Historical footnotes: The great majority of San Juan’s fortifications were built after the seven years war, when British troops took Havana. Prior to then, the wall around the old city was rather small. The Spanish Engineer colonel in charge of the construction was Cnel. Don Tomas O’Daly, whose place of birth was Ireland. Partially in payment for his services,he was granted a tract of land across the lagoon which was named “San Patricio”. He married a local girl and settled down in Puerto Rico, but his son, Mariscal D. Demetrio O’Daly de la Puente, rose to the rank of field marshal in the Spanish Army, the only Puertorrican to do so. San Patricio shopping center and Fort Buchanan both stand on land that belonged to “Finca San Patricio”. Similar fortifications were also built in Cartegena de la Indias (Colombia) and Havana, however all became obsolete with the development of modern navies, as both the Spanish-American and WWII (Corregidor, PI) demonstrated. El Morro itself was taken by the English in 1797(?) under the Duke of Cumberland. Disease among the troops, however, forced the Brits to abandon the city.