Fort Point

Afrer our little snack at La Boulange, we took the scenic route to our next destination...

Passing by LIttle Tokyo and the outer neighborhoods of SF...

I love how the buildings here have such distinct architectural details, especially bay windows...

Once we saw the bridge in the distance, we knew we were close by...

This stretch of grass had some interesting sculptures which matched the color of the Golden Gate Bridge...

We could see the Spanish tiled roofs of the buildings near Crissy Field and nearby Fort Point...

As we ascended this one hill, we had a nice view of the Bay and the San Francisco skyline...

Parking in this area, by the way, is free, so yay for that.

Located on the southern side of San Francisco Bay, Fort Point is a pre-Civil War era building, designed to protect the bay from foreign and Confederate attack.

The fort itself displays the art of master brick masonry from the Civil War era. There were many of these such forts on the East Coast, but Fort Point is the only one of its kind on the West Coast.

The walls were seven feet thick  and multitiered casemated construction. Sections of cliff were blasted away so that the building would  be low enough to have artillery close to water level, making it easier for cannonballs to attack ships at the water line. I found that fact fascinating.  Despite its imposing presence, the fort never once fired a shot or faced battle. It still played an important role in the defense of the West Coast and showed the military importance of San Francisco during those years.

In the short distance, we saw the majestic and iconic Golden Gate Bridge in its reddish orange hued glory. As you can see the weather was quite sunny and clear. It was a little chillier closer to the water. Our original plan was to walk across the bridge but that was nixed (by me) since it was kind of cold and we wanted to have enough time to relax in the afternoon before going out later for dinner.

TC had a blast getting in some great shots on her new camera as well as video footage.

I captured this shot of a seagull hovering in flight...

I have so many shots of Bert and TC from behind.  I remember when she was below shoulder level just a few years ago. Now she is about 5' 2"...

Our baby is growing up. (sniff, sniff)

A cool shot taken by TC...

It gave me the chills to see this view of the bridge and the Fort. It's seen in so many movies, most prominently in a famous scene in Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" (video shown at the end of the post).

Such a fantastic view of the bridge...

Too bad we couldn't take a tour of the fort itself. It would have been cool to see the inside. I've read that sometimes there are folks dressed in Civil War uniform and gear re-enacting battles.

I'm not sure what this was a window for...perhaps a cannon? It wasn't facing the water though. Hmmm.

It was neat seeing the underside of the bridge from this vantage point.


The skyline on our way back to the city...

The Palace of Fine Arts, build for San Francisco's Panama-Pacific Exposition in 1915.

Here's that clip from "Vertigo" I mentioned earlier with Kim Novak, as the mysterious "Madeline" jumping into the Bay...


In "X-Men 3" (The Last Stand), Sir Ian McKellan (aka "Gandalf", ha ha) as the evil Magneto transports the bridge to Alcatraz...

Never watched this movie though, although Bert was surprised that the mutants were killed off in this movie, like Jean Grey (Phoenix)  killing Professor X and Cyclops.   Aaaagh, whatever!

Fort Point
Marine Dr.
San Francisco, CA 94123
(415) 556-1693

www.nps.gov

Later that evening, we would be meeting up with my former student for dinner in Daly City...