Cape Breton boy builds 'Lego Louisbourg' in his basement

ALBERT BRIDGE, N.S. -

It’s one thing that the fortified town of Louisbourg, N.S. was re-created brick by brick a number of decades ago.

It's another that the 18th-century French fortress has been replicated with Lego by a nine-year-old Albert Bridge, N.S., boy.

"This is my ‘Lego Louisbourg’ that I started when I was eight years old,” explained William Jones, when introducing his project.

The Grade 4 student said his fascination with the Fortress started after making a few visits to the centuries-old town.

"I was obsessed with Lego. I was obsessed with Louisbourg,” Jones said. “And I saw people in, I think, Toronto building one, I was like Oh my God, I should build one.”

The replica town includes a war ship with the French flag, cannons, soldiers with swords, and muskets.

When Jones's plans outgrew what he had in his piggy bank, he had to take matters into his own hands with some 21st-century entrepreneurship.

"I had to find a way to earn money to pay for all the Lego I got, so I started a cotton candy business,” Jones said, adding that all of the Lego probably cost about $1000.

The real-life re-creation of Fortress Louisbourg began in 1961 and lasted into the 1970's.

So how long did it take William to build ‘Lego Louisbourg’?

 “Maybe a year or so?” Jones estimated.

Now that Jones has completed his masterpiece, he already has plans for what future projects might be with the Lego he loves so much.

"(Cape Breton) University, I might build that,” Jones said. “I might build Williamsburg, because there's a place in Virginia called Williamsburg (a pun on his own name), and I might build New York City."

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