Fort Point

Fort Point National Historic Site California National Park Service U.S. Department of the lnterior i* L I ",I key to the whole Pacific coast" "The At the outbreak Fort of the Civil War, newly constructed Point stood as a prime example of the u.S. Army's most sophisticated coastal fortifications. Military officials declared its position at the Golden Gate as the "key to the whole Pacific Coast"l its massiye brick walls looked to be impenetrable. Even as its praises were being sung, ne\ry rifled artillery was in use that could bore through masonry walls-as had happened at similar forts on the East Coast. Fort Point neyer saw action.It surviyes as a monument to a bygone era and a place where you can explore life at a coastal defense garrison in the 1860s. I I ; Sentinel at th E The entrance to San Francisco Bay has long been the site of human habitation. The earliest residents of the area, ancestors of the Ohlone and Miwok peoples, depended on the bay's waters for food and transportation. There is evidence from about 4,000 years ago of an Ohlone village located about a mile from Foft Point along the shore. Left; Fort Point, 1870. Above: Ohlone Indian and canoe. The Castillo de San Joaquin ln 1769 Gaspar de Portol6's overland expedition reached San FranE cisco Bay. By 1776 Spain had I6 o established the area's first Euroo (f o pean settlement, with a mission d L and a presidio (military post). Fearful of encroachment by the British and Russians, Spain fodified the high white cliff at the narrowest paft of the bay's entrance, where Fort Point now stands. The Castillo de San Joaquin, built in ( 1794, was an adobe structure ll housing 9 to 13 cannon. The little fortress guarded the Spanish 1 colony until 1821, when Mexico won independence from Spain and gained control of the region. T o c o o EI Y? c 6 E .9 t o = 't 6 o c c 6 E \1,tfOBNlAREPUBIIIC. 'l t 1 F o c0 E o O 1r ,i lr Above left: Spanish flag from 1793; Spanish soldier, 1770s. .Lbove'. Mexican flag;left: Bear flag, symbol of the 1846 revolt during which U.S. citizens in California banded together to overthrow Mexican rule. Golden Gate ln 1835 the Mexican army moved I to Sonoma and the castillo's adobe walls were left to crumble in the wind and rain. War broke out between Mexico and the United States in 1846. On July 1, U.S.Army officer John Charles Fr6mont, along with Kit Carson and a band of 10 followers, stormed the castillo and spiked the cannons. They discovered that the fortress was empty. After the United States prevailed in the Mexican War in 1848, California was ceded to the U.S. The gold strike that year at Sutter's Mill on the American River lured tens of thousands of prospectors. Most of the "Fortyniners" arrived by sea, making San Francisco the major West Coast harbor as of 1849. When California became the 31st state in 1850, the U.S. Army and Navy officials recommended a series of foftifications to secure San Francisco Bay. Coastal defenses were built at Alcatraz, Fod Mason, and Fort Point (see map below left). Fort Point and the Civil War The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began work on Fort Point in 1853. Plans specified that the lowest tier of artillery be as close as possible to water level so cannonballs could ricochet across the water's surface Workers blasted the 9O-foot cliff down to 15 feet above sea level. The structure featured 7-foot thick walls and multi-tiered casemated construction typical of Third System forts (see diagram on the reverse side of this brochure). lt was sited , to defend the maximum amount of harbor area. While there were more than 30 such forts on the East i Coast, Fort Point was the only one ', (see built on the West Coast map at I i left). c so MARIN o (o PENINSULA 6 E O o € o b Point Bonita Point o .9 FOrt Point t Fort Mason SAN FRAN C/SCO Top: Third System seacoast defenses on the eve of the CivilWar. Above; San Francisco Bay's defenses (red dots) at Fort Point, Alcatraz, and Fort Mason. Circles indicate the range of fire-about 2 miles- for each forffication. A l)-inch Columbiad cannon at Fort Sumter South Carolina. Two such cannons were mounted at Fort Point during the CivilWar. General lnformation ln 1854, lnspector General Joseph F.K. Mansfield declared "this point as the key to the whole Pacific Coast...and it should receive untiring exertions." A crew of 200, many unemployed miners, labored for eight years on the fort. ln 1861 , with war looming, the Army mounted the fort's first cannon. Col. Albert Sidney Johnston, commander of the Depaftment of the Pacific, prepared Bay Area defenses and ordered in the first troops to the fort. Kentuckyborn Johnston then resigned his commission to join the Confederate Army; he was killed at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862. Throughout the Civil War, artillerymen at Fort Point stood guard for an enemy that never came. The Confederate raider CSS Shenandoah planned to attack San Francisco, but on the way to the harbor, the captain learned that the war was over; it was August 1865. Georgia-challenged the effectiveness of masonry walls against rifled adillery. Troops soon moved out of Fort Point and it was never again continuously occupied by the Army. The fort was nonetheless important enough to receive protection from the elements; in 1869, a granite seawall was completed. The following year, some of the fort's cannon were moved to Battery East on the bluffs nearby, where they were more protected. ln 1882 Fort Point was officially named Fort Winfield Scott after the famous Mexican War hero. The new name never caught on here and was later applied to an artillery post at the Presidio. lnto a New Gentury ln 1892 the Army began constructing the new Endicott System concrete fodifications armed with steel, breech-loading rifled guns. Within dight years, all 1O2 of the smooth- ' €r'::i?:,??H;. been dismounted and sold for scrap. The fort, ?:!{if"tri,:**','11',$:" moderately damaged in the 1906 earthquake, was used over the next four decades for barracks, training, and storage. Soldiers from the 6th U.S. Coast Artillery were stationed here during World War ll to guard minefields and the anti-submarine net that spanned the Golden Gate. Preserving Fort Point In 1926 the American lnstitute of Architects proposed preserving the fort for its outstanding military architecture. Funds were unavailable and the idea languished. Plans for the Golden Gate Bridge in the 1930s called for the fofi's removal, but Chief Engineer Joseph Strauss redesigned the bridge to save the fort. "While the old fort has no military value J'low," Strauss said, "it remains nevertheless a fine example of the mason's art....lt should be preserved and restored as a national monument." Preservation efforts were revived after World War ll. On October'16, 1970, President Richard Nixon signed the bill creating Fort Point National Historic Site. The fort tells the story of its years spent guarding the Golden Gate. Fort Point National Historic Site stands beneath the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge (see below). Parking is limited; for public bus information, call 415561-4395, or TDD 415-5614399. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; the park is closed on Thanksgiving, December 25, and January 1. The fort is wheelchair accessible on the ground floor, including the theater. Visitor activities include a brief introductory film, cannon-loading demonstrations, guided and self-guiding tours, and an audio tour. Fort Point National Historic Site is part of the National Park System, one of more than 370 areas that are important examples of our nation's natural and cultural heritage. For more information contact Fort Point National Historic Site, P.O. Box 29333, San Francisco, CA 94129; cal! 41 5-556-1693 (TDD 415-556-0505); or visit www.nps.gov/fopo on the lnternet. H I i *r* rtfll*l( tr+ixi{ ixi**t* * il+ { t( j*, I l- -+'*".":': :, frfr",'* FIag Research Center Above: The 33-star United States flag, in use for the first half of 1861. Righr: 1860s Federal coastal defense soldier's dress uniform. o .9 t oo (I '6 C _9 z6 Golden Gate Fort Point beneath the bridge. Lighthouse "The admiration and pride of the Pacific" o o (0 o F o ? +. C +. g - This is the third lighthouse built at this site-a naturalpromontory from which to guide maliners through waters that can bd treacherous in fog. The first was demolished shortly after constructign in 1852 to make way for Forl Point. The sec- Between 1817 and 1867, the nation's coastal defense system included some 30 forts along the Atlantic and Gulf coastsl Fort Point was the only fort of this era built on the West Coast. An 1857 newspaper article praised the fort's "solid masonry of more than ordinary artistic skill....We venture to predict it will be the admiration and pride of the Pacific." This illustration by artist Richard Schlecht shows many facets of its construction and how it might have been used under ideal conditions. As you tour the fort, remember that in addition to serving as a heavily armed fortification, it was home to hundreds of men. Design and Construction Fort Point is an excellent example of a Third System coastal fortification, a system adopted after the War of 1812 to protect major U.S. harbors. The plan below was drafted before the east and west bastions were added. The fort had three tiers of casemates (vaulted rooms housing cannons), and a barbette tier with additional guns and a sod covering to absorb the impact of enemy cannon fire. The only entrance was a sally port with iron-studded doors. Work began in 1853. Since few local sources of building materials were available, granite was imported from as far away as China before engineers gave up the idea of stone. Some eight million bricks were made in a brickyard nearby. The Civil War showed that masonry forts could be destroyed by new rifled cannon. Thus, no sooner than it was com- pleted, Fort Point needed modifications. As of the 1870s Battery East, a great earthwork atop the bluff just to the southeast, bolstered fortifications at the point. II II o o+. L o IJ. ._.*+-i ..-Elt ---- t I Ii I t $ InK$[ ond, north of the fort at the tiP of the point, suffered from constant erosion. The present lighthouse was used from 1864 until 1934, when the foundation for the Golden Gate Bridge blocked its light. Artillery and Hotshot Fort Point never mounted the 141 cannon that its planners envisioned. By October 1861 there were 69 guns in and around the fort: 24-, 32-, 42-pounders and '10- and 8inch Columbiads (ight). After the war, the Army installed powerful 1O-inch Rodman guns in the lower casemates; these could fire a 128tb. solid shot more than 2 miles. At its greatest strength, the fort ,, { :d ,f Arms & Equipment of the Civil War mounted 102 cannon. ln addition, the fod had "hotshot" furnaces: iron cannon balls could be heated red hot, loaded into a cannon, and fired at wooden ships to set them ablaze. Bastions and Seawall Each of Fort Point's bastions held 15 small cannon to discourage attackers from scaling the fort. By protruding from the main structure, the bastions allowed defenders to fire from a protected position along their own walls rather than revealing themselves by peering down over the parapet. To protect the fort from land attack, a small cannon battery was designed for the west end of the scarp wall at the front; it was built, but cannon were never mounted. o Because the land on which the fort o .E stands was cut down to within 15 feet of the water, a seawall (right) was needed for protection. This 1,500-foot-long structure is an impressive engineering feat. Granite stones were fitted together and the spaces between them sealed with strips of lead. Completed in 1869, the wall held fast for more than 100 years against the Golden Gate's powerful waves until it began to give way in the 1980s. The National Park Service rebuilt the wall and placed boulders seaward to deflect the force of the waves. o a 6 0- tc .9 6 z K Trumpet photo by Al Freni; other photos by High lmpact Photography Garrison During the Cirffiffa[ as many as "",,',l, 500 men from tfoe 3rd U.S. Artillery, the 9th U.S. ', and the 8th I Scarp wall 2 Rifle slit 3 Sally port 4 Parade ground to Penthouse 5 Hot shot furnace 12 Parapet wall 6 Casemate 7 Powder magazine 8 Officers' quarters 9 Enlisted men's quarters It Barbette tier with sod covering l3 Lighthouse l4 West bastion 15 East bastion 16 Cannon mount garrisoned here. Stationed thou- : sands of miles from the major theaters of combat, the men spent their days in a routine of drills, artillery practice, inspections, sentry duty, and maintenance chores. Enlisted men bunked 24 to a casemate on the third tier; officers had single or double quaders one tier below To supplement coal heating fuel, soldiers gathered driftwood from the shore. Bvt. Maj. William Austine, the fort's commander, summed up conditions in an 1861 repoft: "During the summer months the post is enveloped in fogs, and dampness and high winds constantly prevail, and consequently rheumatism and severe colds are very common." Above, from left: Army trumpet, playing cards, U.S. Army issue tin cup, wo o den p ip e, Fe der al artilleryman's forage cap. n GPO:'1998-432-903/60391 Printed on recycled PaPer.