Historically referenced as “Gibraltar of the West Coast,” the once-formidable Fort Point now resides in relative obscurity beneath the iconic Golden Gate Bridge—an enduring relic of nineteenth-century military engineering. Though it never directly engaged in combat, this impressive masonry fortification maintains significance as the only example of Third System Coastal Defense architecture west of the Mississippi River.
Spanish colonists were the first to fortify California’s Golden Gate, constructing an adobe gun battery atop Punta del Cantil Blanco (White Cliff Point) during the late eighteenth century. The fortress was officially named “Castillo de San Joaquin" in 1794 by Jose Joaquin de Arrillaga, the sixth Spanish Governor of California. However, given the Castillo’s close proximity to the Pacific Ocean, its adobe walls quickly weathered away against persistent onshore winds and high atmospheric moisture. The Spanish ultimately abandoned Castillo de San Joaquin in 1821, shortly after Mexico gained its independence.
In 1846, the Mexican-American War began, coinciding with the “Bear Flag Revolt”—a monthlong uprising by American settlers in Alta California. The Mexican government, seeking to maintain control of its territory, threatened to expel all unnaturalized citizens and seize their illegal landholdings. Tensions boiled over on June 14, when a group of American insurgents—“Bear Flaggers” led by John C. Fremont and Kit Carson—seized the town of Sonoma. These rough-hewn revolutionaries then advanced towards San Francisco, capturing the long-abandoned Castillo de San Joaquin on July 1. The U.S. military took control of Sonoma and San Francisco a week later. On February 2, 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the Mexican-American War and made California a United States territory.
The California Gold Rush dramatically increased San Francisco’s population, commercial traffic, and wealth; however, the Bay Area lacked sufficient military protection. In March 1849, six artillery pieces were installed inside the ruinous remains of Castillo de San Joaquin, providing a temporary solution. After California achieved statehood on September 9, 1850, a joint Army-Navy board surveyed potential sites for a more substantial fortification. They recommended Punta del Cantil Blanco as an ideal location to protect San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate shipping channels. Board members emphasized that “nothing should be allowed to interfere with brining this battery as rapidly as possible to a state of efficiency” and specified that the planned fort should be “as powerful in its fire on the water as…the largest of our fortifications on the Atlantic.”
On March 3, 1853, President Millard Fillmore allocated $500,000 towards the defense of San Francisco Bay. The following month, Chief Engineer Joseph G. Totten assigned Brevet Colonel Joseph K.F. Mansfield to supervise the construction of Fort Point. However, Mansfield was persuaded by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (who would later lead the Confederacy) to accept a position in the Inspector General's Office. Mansfield was replaced by Brevet Lieutenant Colonel James L. Mason as Chief Engineer. Tragically, Mason died less than three months later from a “relapse of Panama Fever.” Frequent supervisory changes plagued Fort Point throughout its construction.
Beyond inconsistent leadership, the Fort Point project was hampered by challenges related to site preparation and resource allocation. Before construction could begin, the remains of Castillo de San Joaquin and rocky heights of Punta del Cantil Blanco needed to be leveled. Contemporary military doctrine prioritized placing a fort’s lowest level of cannons as close to the waterline as possible, maximizing the destructive potential of ricocheting artillery fire. A crew of two hundred men, mostly unemployed miners, labored to clear an area measuring 135,000 square feet. The earthen promontory and Spanish adobe works were completely demolished by September 1854. However, even with the site prepared, procuring sufficient building materials proved to be a constant struggle for project engineers. Few California quarries or brickyards satisfied the Army's stringent quality requirements. Much of the granite was imported from China, while a new brickworks was established specifically to produce the eight million bricks required for the fort’s construction.
By December 1860, Fort Point was essentially complete (having cost $2.8 million) and ready to receive its armament. The massive masonry work contained 126 gun positions within its walls. Ten additional cannon placements were located on the outwork battery, and five more in the counterscarp gallery, bringing the fort's total capacity to 141 guns.
The Civil War at Fort Point
When South Carolina seceded from the United States, Unionists in San Francisco feared that pro-secessionist forces might attempt to seize federal military installations around the bay. In anticipation of the impending Civil War, Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston, commander of the Pacific Branch of the Army, ordered the Third U.S. Artillery Regiment to garrison Fort Point. Ironically, Johnston, a native Kentuckian, later resigned his commission to join the Confederate army as a general. On February 15, 1861, Union troops began occupying the unfinished quarters and empty casemates of Fort Point. Without any artillery, the soldiers were “keepers of a toothless tiger.” Fort Point would not receive its munitions for another three months.
During the Civil War, Fort Point housed as many as five hundred men. Far removed from the major theaters of war, its garrison never experienced combat. Daily life was mundane and regimented, consisting of routine inspections, maintenance tasks, and rigorous drills.
The closest Fort Point came to armed conflict actually occurred after the war’s end. During the summer of 1865, word reached San Francisco that the CSS Shenandoah—one of the Confederacy’s most effective commerce raiders—was operating off the California coast. Between October 1864 and June 1865, the rebel ship captured or sank 37 Union merchant vessels in the North Pacific and Bering Sea, inflicting an estimated $1.4 million in damage.
The Shenandoah had been at sea for over a year, and her crew was unaware that the Confederacy had collapsed. During a raiding mission on June 27, the ship’s commander, Lieutenant James I. Waddell, received confiscated newspapers detailing the Fall of Richmond, Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, and Lincoln’s assassination. Some periodicals reported an imminent battle in North Carolina between General Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee and General William T. Sherman’s Military Division of the Mississippi, while others carried an defiant proclamation by Confederate President Jefferson Davis, vowing that the war would be “carried out with a renewed vigor.”
Lieutenant Waddell was particularly intrigued by reports indicating that San Francisco’s seafaring defenses were limited to a single warship, the USS Comanche, a Passaic-class monitor. The rebel commander devised a plan to evade Fort Point under cover of darkness, seize the Comanche by surprise, and take control of the bay. However, on August 2, just a two weeks away from San Francisco, the Shenandoah encountered the British ship Barracouta, which carried recent newspapers confirming the Confederacy’s surrender. Concerned about facing possible piracy charges—a crime punishable by death in the United States —Waddell sailed the Shenandoah to Liverpool, England. This voyage, incidentally, made the Shenandoah the only Confederate vessel to circumnavigate the globe. On November 6, 1865, Waddell formally surrendered the vessel to the British Royal Navy, marking the last official surrender of the American Civil War.
A Victim of Obsolescence
The technological advancements of the Civil War, such as rifled artillery and iron-clad ships, diminished the defensive and strategic values of masonry coastal fortifications like Fort Point. Consequently, troops were withdrawn from Fort Point, and the Army never again maintained a continuous garrison there. For nearly a decade, the fort was essentially abandoned, relegated to caretaker status.
Fort Point was regarrisoned in 1878, housing two companies of the Fourth U.S. Artillery, and notably visited by General William T. Sherman that September. On November 25, 1882, General Sherman issued General Order 133, which officially redesignated Fort Point as Fort Winfield Scott, commemorating the Brevet Lieutenant General’s heroism during the Mexican-American War; however, this renaming failed to achieve widespread adoption. The Fort Point garrison was withdrawn after only eight years. Despite its abandonment by the military, the vacant structure became a popular tourist destination.
During the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, Fort Point sustained moderate structural damage. An eight-inch separation between the interior and exterior walls was of particular concern. Following a formal inspection, U.S. Army engineers determined the cost of necessary repairs prohibitive, resulting in the fort’s abandonment. Over the next several years, Fort Point fell into increasing disrepair; its interior gradually succumbing to the elements and vandalism.
In 1914, plans were developed to convert the aging Fort Point into a detention barracks. Two separate bills were introduced in Congress: one proposing the acquisition of Alcatraz Island by the Bureau of Immigration, and the other stipulating the relocation of military prisoners from Alcatraz to Fort Point. Before either bill ever left committee, the Army committed substantial material and financial resources to Fort Point’s renovation. Much of the construction work was done by Alcatraz inmate crews. Despite these remodeling efforts, neither bill was enacted, and no prisoners were ever housed at Fort Point.
Between 1920 and 1925, Fort Point was briefly repurposed as a Bachelor Officers’ Quarters, with several casemates functioning as vocational training classrooms and workshops. However, by 1926, the fort once again fell victim to vandalism and neglect. Hampered by budgetary constraints, the War Department spent a mere $40.37 to board up doors and windows, a largely ineffective attempt to prevent further intrusion.
From Endangerment to Salvation
“While the old fort has no military value now, it remains nevertheless a fine example of the mason’s
art…In the writer’s view, it should be preserved and restored as a national monument…”
– Joseph P. Strauss, 1932, Chief Engineer of the Golden Gate Bridge
In 1933, the long-abandoned Fort Point presented itself as a major obstacle for the planned Golden Gate Bridge. Initial designs positioned a massive concrete caisson directly upon the fort’s location, a plan that would have necessitated the structure’s demolition. However, Chief Engineer Joseph B. Strauss, recognizing the historical significance of Fort Point, personally toured the site and subsequently redesigned the bridge’s southern approach to accommodate the existing structure. His revision incorporated a graceful arch that aesthetically framed Fort Point and supported the roadway above. Although this modification preserved the main casemated section of Fort Point, some of its outer works, including the counterscarp gallery and a ten-gun battery, had to be sacrificed to accommodate the southern bridge anchorage. During the excavation process, workers uncovered a small adobe structure, likely the powder magazine of Castillo de San Joaquin. This structure was documented and photographed before being demolished.
From 1933 to 1937, Fort Point was repurposed as a support facility for the Golden Gate Bridge. The fort's numerous casemates provided convenient workspace for the hundreds of laborers, artisans, and engineers assigned to the bridge's southern anchorage. Draftsmen and other administrative personnel established offices in the former barracks. The barbette tier was transformed into an open-air laboratory where scientists tested the corrosion resistance of various steel plates, generating data essential to the bridge's long-term structural integrity.
With the outbreak of World War II, San Francisco Bay became a strategic point of military defense. In 1942, as part of a comprehensive harbor defense system, a steel anti-submarine net was stretched across the bay to deter Japanese incursions. This net was further reinforced by three minefields strategically placed in the harbor approaches. These minefields, in turn, were protected by gun batteries positioned on both sides of the Golden Gate. Fort Point itself was equipped with searchlights and rapid-fire cannons. Following the end of World War II, the fortress was once again decommissioned and closed.
Public interest in Fort Point increased after World War II. In March 1947, General Mark Clark, commanding the Sixth Army, recommended that Fort Point be designated as surplus property and transferred to the War Assets Administration for preservation. Despite several grassroots “Save-the-Fort” campaigns, the structure remained largely unprotected. In 1959, a group of retired military officers and civilian engineers formed the Fort Point Museum Association. With the U.S. Army's approval, the Association dedicated the next eleven years fundraising for the fort's preservation. These efforts succeeded on October 16, 1970, when Congress officially established the Fort Point National Historic Site. The Golden Gate National Recreation Area currently manages this treasured landmark.
Visiting Fort Point
A trip to Fort Point begins outside, along its historic seawall. Even as this defensive work neared completion in 1861, rapid erosion threatened to undermine its concrete and granite foundations. Over the next eight years, soldiers and engineers worked tirelessly to manufacture this barricade, using thousands of tons of interlocking granite blocks quarried in Folsom, California. Completed in 1869, the 1,500-foot-long seawall successfully withstood the Pacific Ocean’s powerful waves for over a century. However, by the 1980s, the seawall exhibited signs of deterioration, leading the National Park Service to undertake a major refurbishment project. The restored seawall now serves as the primary approach to Fort Point.
Access to Fort Point is gained through its sally port. Immediately inside this entrance, to the right, is the Guard Room, which introduces the fort’s historical significance. Opposite the Guard Room is the former Powder Magazine. This space currently houses exhibits exploring various aspects of Fort Point’s past, including information pertaining to Spanish colonialism, soldier life and material culture, and the broader defense systems implemented to protect San Francisco Bay.
After appreciating the museum exhibits, visitors may enter the Parade Ground. The fort's interior walls are characterized by a honeycomb pattern of brick archways, known as casemates. These casemates housed four tiers of artillery, strategically positioned to defend San Francisco Bay from enemy attack. On the south side of the Parade Ground is the "gorge” of the fort. The first floor of this section contained essential support facilities, such as privies, storerooms, and a small jail. The second and third floors provided living quarters, kitchens, mess halls, and a small dispensary. living quarters, kitchens, mess halls, and a small dispensary.
The Officers' Quarters, located on the fort’s second tier, contain additional exhibits exploring contemporary medical practices, the evolution of navigational aids around San Francisco Bay, and the contributions of Black soldiers in the United States Army. On the third tier, the Enlisted Men's Quarters feature several restored rooms that depict living conditions during the Civil War. The fort's uppermost level, the barbette tier, formerly the site of its heaviest artillery, currently features the Fort Point Light (c. 1864).
The 1849 California Gold Rush dramatically increased maritime traffic into San Francisco Bay, but the lack of navigational aids made the Golden Gate a perilous passage. Treacherous currents, strong winds, dense fog, and submerged rocks contributed to numerous (and often deadly) shipwrecks. In response, the U.S. Lighthouse Board began constructing a lighthouse atop Punta del Cantil Blanco in 1852. Although the structure was completed in July 1853, it never became operational. That September, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—prioritizing the construction of Fort Point—demolished the existing Spanish-era fort, Cantil Blanco, and the newly erected navigation aid. The Army subsequently financed a replacement lighthouse just north of Fort Point, which began operation in March 1855. This second lighthouse was ultimately dismantled in 1863 to make way for the fort’s seawall.
Completed in January 1864, the third lighthouse—a nine-sided, cast-iron tower designed by Lieutenant Colonel Robert S. Williamson—endures atop Fort Point’s West Bastion. This beacon originally burned lard and mineral oil; its light supplemented by a mechanical fog bell during periods of low visibility. However, these navigational aids were not always sufficient. On February 22, 1901, the steamer City of Rio de Janeiro shipwrecked adjacent to Fort Point, It sank within ten minutes, sending 128 passengers and crew to a watery grave. This disaster prompted the installation of Fort Point’s foghorn in 1904. The Fort Point Light was decommissioned in September 1934, as the rising anchorages of the Golden Gate Bridge partially obstructed its signal tower.
Amidst San Francisco’s modern urban environment, Fort Point endures as a historical touchstone of American engineering prowess, coastal defense strategy, and architectural preservation. The stories held within its brick masonry walls provide an immersive experience for those willing to explore their depths.
Visit the Fort Point NPS webpage, NPS History, The Presidio, Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, America's Best History, and The Clio for more information about this fascinating historical landmark