If you've spent the past few years holed up in a bunker planning for a retaliatory strike against a British army invading our shores in search of Revolutionary revenge, it turns out Central Park already had you covered. Park employees got a fun surprise yesterday when they found that a centuries-old cannon on display was loaded with gunpowder and a cannonball.
Employees were giving the 233-year-old cannon, which experts think came from a sunken British Navy ship, a routine cleaning when they discovered the ammunition, and called the bomb squad to assess the situation. And it turns out, that baby was live! "In theory, you could have fired that cannon, because the powder was still working," NYPD spokesman Paul Browne told the Times.
Plus, while the cannon has been stored safely in a Conservancy shed since 1996, it had been on display in the park for over a hundred years previously, giving everybody a chance for playtime with the old-school killing machine. "This is an amazing surprise," historian and author John Moore told CBS. "It was there for so many years and people were sitting on it when it was a loaded cannon." But good news: the gunpowder has since been removed, and we're no longer in danger of being held hostage by cannon-wielding, Redcoat-clad park squirrels.
