Fort Miley sits on Point Lobos, one of the headlands on the south side of the Golden Gate. Much of it is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and the rest is the San Francisco VA Medical Center.
Guns for the Golden Gate
Work started on November 27, 1899, on a battery for sixteen 12-inch mortars, according to the National Park Service. The post was renamed in 1900 for Lt. Col. John D. Miley, who had died in Manila the year before. Battery Chester, with two and later three 12-inch rifled guns, was finished between 1902 and 1903. Those guns covered all three channels into the Golden Gate. Wikipedia notes the land had been the Golden Gate Cemetery since 1868 before the Army took it over.
The Army planned to retire Battery Chester by 1937, but World War II kept its guns in service until 1943. Battery 243, finished in 1944, was built for two 6-inch rapid-fire guns that protected the minefields outside the Golden Gate. Those guns weren't mounted until 1948. The NPS calls it one of the last phases of traditional coastal defense.
What you can see
- West Fort Miley: a grassy picnic area among three gun emplacements, including Battery Chester, with views down Ocean Beach
- USS San Francisco Memorial: at Point Lobos, two shell-damaged sections of the cruiser flank a granite monument to those killed at Guadalcanal on Nov. 12–13, 1942
- East side: most Army buildings were torn down in 1934 for the VA hospital. The one survivor, an ordnance storehouse, is now an NPS maintenance building. Wikipedia says a resurfaced, wheelchair-accessible trail runs east of the hospital