Look straight down from the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge and you'll see a squat brick fort tucked under a steel arch. That arch exists because of the fort.
Spanish beginnings
Spain first fortified the promontory in 1794 with the Castillo de San Joaquín, an adobe outpost of the Presidio armed with nine to 13 cannons. It crumbled after the Mexican army moved to Sonoma in 1835.
A Gold Rush fortress
The U.S. Army Engineers built the current fort between 1853 and 1861. According to the National Park Service, it was the only fortification built in the Army's "Third System" style west of the Mississippi. It was armed and garrisoned through the Civil War against a Confederate attack that never came, and its guns never fired a shot in anger. It was later called "the Gibraltar of the West Coast."
Saved by the bridge's engineer
Plans for the Golden Gate Bridge in the 1930s called for removing the fort. Chief Engineer Joseph Strauss instead redesigned the bridge so its southern approach arches over it. "While the old fort has no military value now," Strauss said, "it remains nevertheless a fine example of the mason's art." Fort Point became a National Historic Site on Oct. 16, 1970.
On screen
Kim Novak's character jumps into the bay here in Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo.
Today the fort is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and recorded more than 1 million visitors in 2025. Check the NPS site for current hours and ranger talks before you go.