forts and walls

there are several forts at San Juan, but the two biggest are san felipe del morro (constructed 1540-1790), located at the mouth of the bay, and san cristobal (1634), located about a mile east of el morro and the largest fortification in the Americas---the approach to el morro is across a treeless headland, while san cristobal has houses and apartment buildings across a narrow street from its entrance---along with construction of san cristobal, the spanish began constructing huge stone walls that completely enclosed the city by 1785--part of the walls were torn down in 1897 to facilitate expansion of the old city across the peninsula and around the bay, but they remain standing along the bay, around el morro, and along the atlantic above the cemetery and la perla, the latter being, my hosts assured me, a den of drug lords and other iniquity---on the bay side, they have created a great pedestrian path, which was overrun with feral cats that some believe are descendants of the cats that are known to have come to the island with columbus' second voyage in 1493---the iron oxides leaching out of sections of the walls make for some really nice coloration on parts of the walls.