Question 437

In the 17th century, this structure formed the northern boundary of the New Amsterdam settlement. In the 1640s basic picket and plank fences denoted plots and residences in the colony. Later, on behalf of the Dutch West India Company, construction of a stronger stockade was done. A strengthened 12-foot (4 m) structure of timber and earth, fortified by palisades, was created by 1653 . It was created, and strengthened over time, as a defense against attack from various native tribes. In 1685 surveyors laid out the present structure along the lines of the original stockade. What structure which has also "crashed" many times?