USA’s Oldest City – Dale’s Daily Data

What’s the oldest city established by Europeans in the country?  Is it Plymouth, Massachusetts?  Jamestown,
Virginia?  New York City?  It’s St. Augustine, Florida.  The Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth in 1620, but St. Augustine was established 55 years before that in 1565 by Spanish Admiral Pedro Menendez.  That was 21 years before Roanoke, Virginia.  42 years before Santa Fe, New Mexico and Jamestown, Virginia.
It was attacked and burned by the English.  It was plundered by pirates.  It was attacked by Seminole
Indians.  It was invaded by union troops in the civil war.  But somehow this small city along the Atlantic survived.

Spanish rule in Florida came to an end in 1821 when the treaty that ended the War of 1812 gave the United States most of Florida that had been occupied by Americans.  St. Augustine was taken over by a small group
of American soldiers, but there was hardly anything to celebrate.  Indians continued to attack and a yellow
fever epidemic wiped out most of the town.

In 1965 St. Augustine city celebrated its 400^th anniversary with the unveiling of what’s known as the Great Cross on the grounds of the mission where Menendez landed.  The cross is 208 feet tall and weighs 70 tons – the second tallest free-standing cross in the western hemisphere.  Residents will tell you that since the Great Cross went up, St. Augustine has never been hit by a major hurricane.

It was on this date in 1565, (September 8^th), St. Augustine was established.