At that period a rocky ridge - a spur of of the hills which lie south of Mill Creek, extended unbrokenly in a southwesterly direction from that locality, and terminated somewhat abruptly on the river bank a few rods northeast of the junction of the present Union and River Streets.
The line of his ridge is still (1909) distinguishable as far as Jackson Street, although Courtwright Avenue, North Street and other streets have been cut through it.
Below Jackson Street the ridge has been entirely removed within recent years. First, in 1833, the southern extremity was shaved off when the channel of the North Branch canal weas excavated, and next, in the summer of 1851, a roadway was cut through it, being the extension of River Street northward to connect to The Wilkes-Barre and Providence Plank Road then about to be constructed. The opening of this street, or road, left a dome shaped mass of rock, some twenty-five or thirty feet in height, standing between the road and the canal basin, isolated from the main part of the ridge along whose northwestern base, from the canal to North Street, the road ran.
Early in the spring of 1886 this dome-shaped hill was removed, with the exception of a very small section, a few feet in height, left standing on the canal bank.
In the summer of 1886 West Jackson Street was cut through the main part of the ridge to connect with River Street, and two years later the remaining portion of the ridge southwest of Jackson Street was removed.
It was upon the southernmost brow of this ridge that the Yankeesconstructed in July 1771 their largest redoubt, which they named "Fort Defiance." Its remains were "still visible" in 1830, and the hill had then, for many years, been called Redoubt Hill." Later it was known simply a "The Redoubt". After the extension of North River Street through Redoubt Hill the dome shaped, isolated portion of the hill was called "The Redoubt" and this name it bore till its demolition.
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