6o 
THE STANDARD GUIDE. 
The Castillo San Salvador de la Punta (Punta means point) is situated 
immediately on the water front on a jutting point which narrows the 
harbor entrance. It is a small stone bastioned work which was begun in 
1659 under direction of the engineers of the Morro. It is described in 1762 
as being situated 200 yards from the Punta Gate of the city walls, from 
which it was separated by a ditch crossed by a drawbridge. The batteries 
of La Punta were intended to supplement the heavier artillery of the larger 
fort across the harbor. In the siege of Havana by the British, La Punta 
was silenced only after the guns of the Morro in the hands of the enemy 
had been turned upon it, and its surrender marked the end of the city’s 
resistance. The work is now used as a barracks by the Rural Guard. 
No longer useful as a fortified defense, La Punta has become the central 
point of the park improvements here designed and carried out by the Ameri¬ 
can government of intervention. The American engineers demolished the 
unsightly buildings surrounding the fortification, laid out the grounds as 
a park, and transformed the waste spaces from a receptacle for all sorts 
of refuse into a well kept park and popular recreation ground. The shore 
beyond the west bastion was formerly a dumping ground and one of the 
low quarters of the city. This, too, the Americans set about reclaiming 
and making beautiful. They found, certain conditions peculiarly favorable 
for an extension of the park and boulevard system along the shore. 
These conditions resulted from the operation of the Spanish law under 
which the land washed by the waves of the sea at the highest tides and 
during storms is the property of the State. Landward from this shore 
property another strip also, denominated a service zone, was reserved for 
public uses. Rights of occupancy for these lands were granted only by 
royal orders, and only temporary rights were given. Under the operation 
of these laws Havana’s sea front had been unbuilt on except for fortifica¬ 
tions and for temporary bath houses; so that there was left a bare space 
along the shore from La Punta west to the Almendares River at Vedado. It 
had long been the desire of the Havana authorities to utilize this space fora 
parkway and shore drive, and in 1875 General Albear had drawn up a plan 
for the purpose; this had never been adopted, however, nor did the Ameri¬ 
can authorities follow it. Under a project prepared by the Chief Engineer, 
Major Wm. M. Black, they built the Malecon and its music stand, and 
began the construction of Gulf Avenue. 
The Malecon (the Spanish word means embankment or wall) consists 
of a substantial sea wall, extending in a curved line from the northwest 
bastion of La Punta to the west side of the end of the Prado, protecting 
for this entire length a broad concrete promenade and a macadamized 
driveway. The wall stands about thirty feet back from the high water line, 
and an inclined toe with stones projecting above its face breaks the force 
of the waves in a storm. In the center of the park thus formed is a music 
stand of classical design, with twenty Ionic columns supporting an 
