Fort Point National Historic Site
historic place
Fort Point National Historic Site is a significant Historic Place located in San Francisco, California. Construction of this masonry fortification began in 1853 and was completed in 1861 by the U.S. Army Engineers. Its primary purpose was to defend San Francisco Bay against hostile warships, especially during the California Gold Rush era. Fort Point is notable as the only Third System style fortification built west of the Mississippi River. It was garrisoned by Union soldiers throughout the Civil War, though its guns never fired a shot in anger. The advent of rifled artillery eventually rendered such masonry forts obsolete. In 1970, Fort Point was preserved and designated as a National Historic Site. It stands as a physical record of 19th-century military engineering and coastal defense strategy.