I had not been inside this building since an elementary school field trip.
View of Marin Headlands from gun port.
Construction of the Golden Gate bridge that span the entire Fort almost spelled its destruction. "Chief Engineer Joseph Strauss initially concluded that Fort Point sat on the optimal location for a huge concrete caisson anchoring the bridge’s San Francisco end. After touring the empty fort, however, he changed his mind. In a 1937 memorandum to the bridge’s Board of Directors, Strauss wrote: “While the old fort has no military value now, it remains nevertheless a fine example of the mason’s art. Many urged the razing of this venerable structure to make way for modern progress. In the writer’s view it should be preserved and restored as a national monument…” Strauss made some additional calculations and concluded that the fort could be spared by moving the southern anchorage several hundred feet south. However, in order to make up the difference in the total length, he would have to add a ‘bridge within the bridge,’ and consequently designed a steel arch in the southern anchorage to span the old fort. Fort Point would be overshadowed by the new bridge, but it would be preserved. "
~ From Fort Point: Sentry at Golden Gate By John Martini, Historian
The lowest tier of artillery was set as close as possible to water level so cannonballs could ricochet across the water's surface to hit enemy ships at the water-line.
Inside displays on soldiers lives in the 1860's, the Buffalo Soldiers, and many other bits of history.
