While digging a grave for his recently departed pet iguana in the backyard of his Coffey Street apartment building, 35-year-old Matt LaDuca came across a three-pound cannon shot that is believed to date back to the Revolutionary War. “I know you can go to Gettysburg and dig up musketballs, because over there they’re a dime a dozen,” said LaDuca, 35. “But in Red Hook? I don’t know.” Local historian John Burkard bets the cannon shot was used to fend off British troops during the Battle of Brooklyn in August 1776, noting that Fort Defiance was not far from where LaDuca now resides.
Red Hook Blast from the Past [NY Daily News] GMAP