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Forever a desirable location, San Francisco was
considered among the most important military ports
in the United States for more than 100 years.
THANKS TO AN eerily comprehensive collective consciousness — or an overzealous push by San Francisco tourism bureaus — the sum- mer of 2017 has served as an unmistakable reminder of another, far more colorful summer, the Summer of Love. At exhibits and fairs, vestiges
of the peace-touting hippies who turned on, tuned in and
dropped out half a century ago are omnipresent, making
it easy to forget that contrary to the images seen in vibrant
print posters, the Bay Area has historically been a heavily
armed military stronghold.
Forever a desirable location, San Francisco was considered among the most important military ports in the United
States for more than 100 years, second only to New York
Harbor. And since the city had the most strategically important port on the West Coast, it should come as no surprise
that a well-preserved historical record was left behind. The
area surrounding the Golden Gate strait contains remnants
of seven distinct war eras, from the Spanish-Mexican period
in 1776 up until the Cold War. These forts and other coastal
defenses are still visible and include some of the best and
most extensive military architecture in North America.
The largest remaining collection of batteries are from the
Endicott Period, which began around 1885, and continued
through the World War I and World War II periods. Named
for Secretary of War William C. Endicott, the Endicott
Period reflects an era when the War Department placed a
big emphasis on seacoast fortifications around the country.
As a response, the army made a concerted effort in the 1890s
to modernize and rearm all these forts. Artifacts of these
batteries and forts can be seen throughout the county, with
a few standouts. Built in the Marin Headlands in 1908, Fort
Barry is one of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area
(GGNRA)’s best examples of an Endicott Period army post.
Fort Cronkhite, in the Marin Headlands north of Rodeo
Lagoon, is one of the few examples of a World War II mobilization post remaining in the country. But it’s Fort Baker
that still provides public safety protections today, alongside
such diverse features as a LEED-certified resort, yacht club,
children’s museum and water access for recreation.
The last “post-to-park” conversion in the GGNRA sys-
tem, Fort Baker is a 335-acre former 1905 U. S. Army post
located north of the Golden Gate Bridge in Sausalito, along
Horseshoe Cove. In the fort’s heyday the cove was home to
the Harbor Defense Command’s local mine depot, where
Coast Artillery soldiers loaded 800 pounds of TNT into
metal mines and planted them underwater with a complex
series of electronic cables. If an enemy vessel or submarine
was spotted entering San Francisco Bay, the mines could
be electronically triggered by a shore-based detonating sta-
tion. The army also built a marine repair shop that provided
maintenance for the small civilian boats used in the mine
operation in the cove.
In the wake of the World War II bombings of Pearl
Harbor and Hiroshima, the threat of foreign attack on U. S.
soil shifted from naval assault to air attack, particularly
involving nuclear weapons, and during the Cold War Fort
Baker became home to the headquarters of the Sixth Army
Air Defense Command Region (ARADCOM). The Sixth
ARADCOM Region was responsible for staffing 12 permanent Nike antiaircraft missile launch sites around the Bay
Area, including in the East Bay, south of the Golden Gate,
and at Fort Cronkhite, Fort Barry, Angel Island and San
Rafael. These missile sites would receive initial targeting
information from an early-warning radar station at the Mill
Valley Air Force Station on Mount Tamalpais, now visually
memorialized in the large “golf ball” resting on the ridge.
After the Cold War the 91st Division, which had provided training support, was stationed at Fort Baker under
the command of the Travis Air Force Base, but times were
changing. In 1995, the military transferred its land to the
GGNRA and in 2000, the last soldiers left Fort Baker. Today,
the U.S. Coast Guard Station Golden Gate is at Horseshoe
Cove, where it is responsible for search-and-rescue missions, homeland security, maritime law enforcement,
maritime environmental protection and boating safety,
while the Travis Air Force Base continues to operate the
Sailing Marina Center at the Presidio Yacht Club. More than
25 historic army buildings can still be found at Fort Baker,
including structures at Cavallo Point and Battery Yates,
along with trails and remarkable bay views. m
Opposite: Murray
Circle guardhouse at
Fort Baker, 1910. This
page: Batteries Cavallo
and Yates around 1914,
with San Francisco in
the background.
