 The French first named the peninsula in the 1720s ; presque @-@ isle means peninsula ( lit . " almost an island " ) in French . They built Fort Presque Isle at the modern city of Erie in the summer of 1753 , naming it for the peninsula that protected the fort . The French also built two " military outposts " on Presque Isle itself : one at the entrance to the peninsula and one at the eastern point . During the French and Indian War , the French abandoned their outposts and burned their fort in 1759 . The British constructed a new fort of the same name that year , which later fell to Native American forces on June 19 , 1763 , during Pontiac 's Rebellion . 
