In 1565, a Spanish admiral named Pedro Menendez de Aviles landed along the shoreline where the Great Cross stands today. After sending soldiers to fortify the area, Menendez himself came ashore, planted a wooden cross and celebrated the first actual Thanksgiving on American soil. And it was there he would establish a city, thriving still today, that we call St. Augustine. The Great Cross was erected in 1965, coinciding with St. Augustine's 400th Anniversary,