Banjul, the country’s capital and economic center, is located where the Gambia River enters the Atlantic Ocean. In 1816, the King of Kombo ceded Banjul island to British commandant Alexander Grant, who renamed it St. Mary’s Island and founded the new town of Bathurst as a trading post and base with the scope to control the entrance to the land and suppress attempts of slave trades. The British also  After independence, the town regained its original name. In 1994, President Dawda Jawara was overthrown in a military coup, and to commemorate this event Arch 22 was built as an entrance portal to the capital.