Sally Port: Fort Point Tour

Fort Point sits resolute beneath the Golden Gate Bridge.

Fort Point was constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers between 1853 and 1861 to prevent entrance of a hostile fleet in the San Francisco Bay. In 1794 the Spanish Government built a small fort called "Castillo de San Joaquin" on a high bluff where Fort Point is now located. The Castillo was torn down in the early 1850's to make way for the construction of Fort Point.

The fort was designed to mount 126 massive cannons. Rushed to completion at the beginning of the Civil War, Fort Point was first garrisoned in February of 1861 by Company I, 3rd U.S. Artillery Regiment. The fort was occupied throughout the Civil War, but the advent of faster, more powerful rifled cannons made brick forts such as Fort Point obsolete.

The fort was then used for storage and training purposes for many years. Between 1933 and 1937 the fort was used as a base of operations for the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. During World War II, Fort Point was occupied by about 100 soldiers who manned searchlights and rapid-fire cannon mounted atop the fort as part of the protection of a submarine net strung across the entrance to the Bay.

You're currently standing in the only entrance to Fort Point, the sally port. Notice the heavy studded double doors and the rifle slits in both walls. An attacker breaking through these walls would be caught in a devastating crossfire in this passage. Additionally, notice the opening to the cistern beneath the floor. It is one of five identical cisterns that held up to 200,000 gallons of fresh water for the use of soldiers stationed at the fort.