| Though best known for its opulent
mansions, Newport is also a hub for
colonial architecture, yachting competition and naval
history. The General Assembly's first state
house still stands here along with many of Rhode
Island's oldest and most architecturally significant
churches. Touro Synagogue is the oldest Jewish synagogue
in America while St. Mary's Church is Rhode Island's
oldest Catholic church and where then-U.S. Senator John
F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Bouvier in 1953.
Newport's lighthouses still flash for
boaters and the city's 150 years of
America's Cup competition unfolds at the Museum of
Yachting on Fort Adams, where visitors can also explore
a fort with roots back to the American Revolution.
Featuring some of Newport's best views of the Rose
Island Lighthouse and Newport Bridge, Fort Adams is
central to the city's naval history, which brought the
French here to break up the British occupation during
the American Revolution. The U.S. Naval Academy was also located here
in the country's early days, a tradition the Naval War
College assumed in 1884 when it was founded on
the other side of Newport Harbor.
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