"Old Coast Guard Station and Golden Gate Bridge" by U.S. National Park Service , public domain
![]() | Presidio of San FranciscoUnder Three Flags |
Brochure Under Three Flags at Presidio of San Francisco at Golden Gate National Recreation Area (NRA) in California. Published by the National Park Service (NPS).
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Under Three Flags
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
Presidio of San Francisco
Golden Gate National
Recreation Area
Artist's conception of how the Presidio may have appeared in 1779
Over 200 Years of
Military History
The Presidio of San Francisco served as an almost continuously active military
garrison for more than 200 years under the flags of three nations. Established in 1776
by Spanish soldiers and colonists, the Presidio became part of Mexico when that
nation gained its independence in 1821. The first United States troops arrived at the
post in 1846, and the Presidio began to develop into the country's most important
Army post on the West Coast. Today the Presidio's architectural, historic, natural and
scenic landscapes are preserved and protected as a national park for all to enjoy.
Spanish Years:
1776 to 1821
For thousands of years before the Spanish
arrived, the native Ohlone people lived on
the San Francisco peninsula, where they
hunted, fished and gathered plants.
In 1769 a Spanish expeditionary force
marched up the coast from Baja California,
establishing presidios (military outposts)
and missions on the way. During this journey the great inland harbor of San Francisco
Bay was first seen by Europeans, and plans
were made to fortify and settle the area.
Mexican Years:
1821 to 1848
In 1821 the newly independent Republic of
Mexico included Alta California as part of
its territory. For the next 14 years Mexican
soldiers served at the Presidio.
In 1835 the post was temporarily abandoned when General Mariano Vallejo
transferred the military headquarters north
to Sonoma. Over time, the Presidio’s adobe
walls slowly dissolved in the winter rains.
American Years:
1848 to 1890
Gold! News of the discovery lured fortune
seekers to California in 1848. San Francisco
quickly grew in size and importance,
prompting the U.S. government to establish
a military reservation here. The Army
Corps of Engineers built Fort Point, a fourtiered brick and granite fort, to protect the
entrance of San Francisco Bay.
The outbreak of the Civil War in 1861
emphasized the importance of a rich
California and the harbor's military significance to the Union. The war thus stimulated the first major period of construction at
the Presidio under U.S. dominion.
Rev. 7/04
In June 1776 Captain Juan Bautista de Anza
led a colonizing party of 240 soldiers and
their families north from what is now
southern Mexico. Under the command of
Anza's lieutenant, Jose Joaquin Moraga,
they built an adobe quadrangle and living
quarters, and dedicated the Presidio de San
Francisco on September 17, 1776. An additional 13-gun battery was completed in 1794
to defend the bay’s entrance. These presidial forces represented the northernmost
expansion of Spanish rule in America.
American forces landed at the new settlement of Yerba Buena in 1846, during the
United States’ war with Mexico. (The town
was renamed San Francisco the following
year.) The ruins of the old Spanish fort
were subsequently occupied and repaired
by the U.S. Army's New York Volunteers.
The Mexican flag was officially lowered
over the Presidio in 1848, when a treaty
transferred California to the United States.
The Indian Wars of the 1870s and 1880s
spurred further growth for the Presidio.
Soldiers stationed here saw action against
the Modoc Indians in the Lava Beds of
Northern California and against the
Apache Indians in the Southwest.
A major tree-planting effort gradually
beautified the post and tamed the blowing
wind and sand.
With the closure of many frontier outposts
in the late 1800s, the Presidio again grew
and was transformed into a modern military installation ideally situated for U.S.
expansion into the Pacific.
Printed on recycled paper using soy-based ink
U.S. ARMY MILITARY HISTORY INSTITUTE
Presidio’s Main Post area in 1898 during the Spanish American War.
American Years:
1890 to 1941
Modernization of the Presidio in the 1890s
included construction numerous of concrete gun batteries on the bluffs. By the
1910s, the Coastal Artillery Corps was stationed nearby at new Fort Winfield Scott,
while the cavalry and infantry resided at
the main post.
The Presidio cavalry began protecting
three new national parks in 1890: Sequoia,
General Grant (later Kings Canyon) and
Yosemite. They continued these patrols
each summer until 1916, when park management was transferred to the newly
created National Park Service.
NPS, YOSEMITE RESEARCH LIBRARY
American Years:
1941 to 1994
NATIONAL JAPANESE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
American Years:
1994 to the Present
The U.S. went to war with Spain in 1898.
Large tent camps spread across the
Presidio as troops awaited shipment to the
Philippines during this short war and the
following Philippine War. Returning sick
and wounded were treated in the Army’s
first permanent general hospital, later
named Letterman.
"Buffalo Soldiers" from the all-black 9th
Cavalry served as the nation's first black
Presidential Escort of Honor during
Theodore Roosevelt's 1903 Presidio visit.
They later patrolled Yosemite (pictured).
Earthquake and fire ravaged San Francisco
in 1906. An Army effort led by Philippine
War figure General Frederick Funston provided law and order as well as food and
clothing. Four temporary tent camps
housed refugees on the Presidio grounds.
Troops commanded by General John J.
Pershing left to pursue Pancho Villa on the
Mexican border in 1914. Later, Pershing led
the American Expeditionary Forces in
Europe during World War I.
The Presidio expanded again in the 1920s
when Crissy Army Airfield was built to
augment harbor defense. When the
Golden Gate Bridge was completed in 1937,
the airfield moved to more spacious quarters to the north.
The U.S. entered World War II after the
attack on Pearl Harbor, and Presidio soldiers dug foxholes along nearby beaches.
General John L. DeWitt conducted the
internment of thousands of Japanese and
Japanese-American civilians on the West
Coast, while Japanese-American soldiers
enrolled at a new Military Intelligence
School on Crissy Field (pictured). The
Presidio served as headquarters for the
Western Defense Command and for the
Fourth U.S. Army. Letterman became the
largest Army hospital in the country, treating over 76,000 patients from the Pacific
theater in 1945.
When the Golden Gate National
Recreation Area was created in 1972, the
Presidio was included within its boundaries. The post was transferred to the
National Park Service (NPS) on October 1,
1994, after Congress closed the base as part
of a military reduction effort. The costly
upkeep of the Presidio’s historic structures
led Congress to create a new federal agency,
the Presidio Trust, to partner with the NPS
to care for the park's historic landmarks
and its natural and recreational resources.
EXPERIENCE YOUR AMERICA
After the war, the Presidio was headquarters for both the Sixth Army and the Nike
missile defenses around the Golden Gate.
In 1962, the Department of the Interior
designated the Presidio a National Historic
Landmark, officially recognizing more
than 500 buildings of historic value.
The Presidio enters the 21st century as a
new kind of park, dedicated not only to
preserving the past but also to shaping the
next era. From a proud past, the Presidio
looks to a bright future.
w w w. n p s . g o v / p r s f / h i s t o r y