Fort Point Part 2

Here are a couple of more pictures from Fort Point.

Fort Point is the oldest fort on the west coast. The construction of the fort was started in 1853. This was shortly after California became the 31st state in 1850, and the Army and Navy felt a need for a fort to secure the San Francisco Bay. A 90 foot cliff was blasted down to 15 feet in order defend the maximum amount of the harbor.

Though the Fort never saw action (there was a planned attack in August 1865 but it never happened due to the war ending), it was operational with guards until the end of Civil War. In 1892 the cannons were dismantled and sold for scraps. The only other time that the fort housed men was during the construction of the Golden Gate bridge in the 1930s, and it was not until October 1970 that it was declared a National Historic Site.