Fort Point National Historic Site

You are approaching a fortress that was built to protect San Francisco during the Gold Rush, yet it never fired a shot in combat. Workers constructed Fort Point between eighteen fifty-three and eighteen sixty-one, blasting away ninety feet of cliffside to place the lowest tier of cannons just fifteen feet above the water. This specific elevation was a calculated tactical choice, meant to allow heavy cannonballs to skip across the surface of the bay and strike the vulnerable wooden hulls of enemy warships at the waterline. As you look at the heavy masonry, you are seeing the only fort of this specific Third System architectural style ever built west of the Mississippi River.