Background

Crissy Field is a narrow strip of land east of the Golden Gate Bridge where the Presidio meets San Francisco Bay. Two hundred years ago, Crissy Field consisted of title marsh and natural dunes. The U.S. Army began filling in the marsh in the 1870's, and, in 1921, built an Army Air Service coastal defense station. Over time, as aviation advanced and airplanes needed longer runways to take off and land, the airfield grew. It continued to be used for training and defense through the 1970's, but essentially became obsolete in 1938 when the Golden Gate Bridge was built.

Today, the Presidio is public land, owned by the United States government. The National Park Service manages 20 percent of the property, including Crissy Field, as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and the Presidio Trust manages the remaining 80 percent. Because the Presidio, including Crissy Field, is set in a densely populated urban area, the surrounding community as well as local environmental organizations and the nonprofit Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy (GGNPC) all have a strong interest in its management.

A rehabilitation and restoration project was recently completed on Crissy Field in response to recommendations made in the Presidio's 1994 general management plan amendment (GMPA). This was a privately funded project undertaken by the GGNPC in partnership with the National Park Service. The project, from planning through schematic design to implementation, took more than five years to complete.