The capture and destruction of Washington, in the State of Mexico, could not have [It Became Impregnable.] been effected in 1999 or at any subsequent period. The city in that year became impregnable, so rendered by a vast system or chain of fortresses from the city proper to Vera Cruz, its seaport, a distance of about two hundred miles. The mountain passes and rugged defiles between Washington and Vera Cruz frowned with heavy ordnance. Dynamite guns were ready on every hand to scatter their deadly missiles for the edification of all invaders. From Washington to Vera Cruz, great sentinel forts stood in the path of the invader, an unassailable chain, many of them being hardly visible to the eye. Fortifications were constructed upon the high table lands of the Cordilleras, also upon the apex of precipices, and from these dizzy summits shrinking eyes might gaze down two and three thousand feet and admire the bewildering beauties of tropical vegetation. It was estimated by leading engineers in 1999 that with its line of defences to the coast the capital of the United States of the Americas was impervious to the assaults of the world. The port of Vera Cruz, only two hundred miles east of Washington in a direct line, had been permitted to retain its original name when Mexico became a part and parcel [Washington's Outlet to the Sea.] of the American Union. This concession was made in honor of Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, the boldest and most intrepid of all warriors of the middle ages, who founded the city of Vera Cruz and destroyed his fleet of vessels so as to compel his followers to wrest from the sway of Montezuma, the city of Mexico. It was at Vera Cruz that Cortes founded the first Spanish colony on the American mainland. In honor and memory of the valiant Spanish commander and his daring exploits in 1520, it was deemed a point of courtesy to retain for that city the baptismal name Cortes had endowed upon it.