Signal Hill and Cape Spears

In 1497 John Cabot discovered Newfoundland and Labrador. St. John's was defended  from intruders by military installations and batteries at Signal Hill which overlooks the City of St. John's. It was the site of many battles between the British and the French over the control of Newfoundland and Labrador..(the last of these battles in North America was here in 1762) Cabot Tower was built to commemorate the discovery of Newfoundland 400 years earlier and the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.  Signal Hill National Historic Site and Cabot Tower are the standout symbols of St. Johns.   

St. John's in the background was and still is a major international port since it is closer than any other to the cities of Northern Europe.

Also it was from Signal Hill that Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless message 100 years ago (1901). This event really shook up the folks who financially backed the trans-Atlantic cable. Their stock took a dive until Marconi played down the news of what he had done following glowing press accounts concerning his capture of radio signals. He used a balloon at first to act as an antenna, then resorted to a large kite on a wire [ala Ben Franklin's technique] to capture the radio signal of the letter "s" in Morse Code, his comrade in Scotland repeated the letter over and over. To this day, some think Marconi invented the radio...he was early in the use of it and the first to accomplish the first long distance...trans-Atlantic transmission. Wireless wins...even today. Cable sucks.

Even Turkey Lurkey enjoyed the cool time we spent at Signal Hill...nice people, plenty of history..

Thank you to Guglielmo Marconi...wireless was a big deal in 1901 and is still a big deal in 2010.

In defense of Signal Hill

As we went high up on the Cabot Tower, Saint John's looks  better than ever.

My favorite "hill" 525 feet above the harbor...Cabot Tower.

 This is as far east as you can get...Cape Spears...does it look cold?

We met a guy who had hitch hiked from Toronto and wanted us to take a picture of him out on Cape Spears....so he had to reciprocate.  So here were are...as far east as you can go without swimming.