Fort Point Boundary

7541 Words31 Pages
Fort Point: Sentry at Golden Gate By John Martini, Historian Fort Point has been called “the pride of the Pacific,” “the Gibraltar of the West Coast,” and “one of the most perfect models of masonry in America.” When construction began during the height of the California gold rush, Fort Point was planned as the most formidable deterrence America could offer to a naval attack on California. Although its guns never fired a shot in anger, Fort Point has witnessed Civil War, obsolescence, earthquake, bridge construction, remodeling for later wars, and restoration as a National Historic Site. It stands today beneath the soaring Golden Gate Bridge as a monument to more than two centuries of military presence on San…show more content…
Jolted awake by the shock of the quake, the artillerymen quickly evacuated the fort but noticed one soldier was missing. Returning to their quarters, they heard a noise coming from outside the windows where one of their men was trapped. The half-awake soldier had attempted to climb out the window, found it barred on the outside, then turned to find the window had slammed shut behind him. The stranded artilleryman turned out to be only slightly shaken and dirty. The fort had fared much worse. A rock slide had closed the road leading to the city, the footbridge from the lighthouse keepers’ residences to the top of the fort had collapsed, and perhaps most alarming, the entire gorge face had pulled away from the rest of the fort, leaving an eight-inch gap between the interior and exterior…show more content…
However, in order to make up the difference in the total length, he would have to add a ‘bridge within the bridge,’ and consequently designed a steel arch in the southern anchorage to span the old fort. Fort Point would be overshadowed by the new bridge, but it would be preserved. Work on the Golden Gate Bridge began in 1933. Fort Point’s casemates made convenient work space for the hundreds of workers and artisans who soon swarmed around the bridge’s southern anchorage, and draftsmen set up shop in the old barracks. The second tier gun rooms served as a cafeteria for bridge workers, and atop the fort dozens of steel plates were painted with a variety of paint coatings and tints, then studied for resistance to salt corrosion. The fort was soon enveloped in a maze of wooden scaffolding as the huge steel arch was erected over the barbette
Open Document