Existing comment:
Defending the Golden Gate
This level is called the "barbette tier" Cannon mounted "en barbette" have carriages which permit soldiers to fire them over a parapet (or wall). The parapet here is 7 feet 2 inches thick.
Fort Point's barbette cannon could sink any wooden ship entering the Golden Gate. No enemy vessel ever tried to pass the guns of Fort Point.
"From the barbette, some shell practice was had, the target being on the opposite shore, at Lime Point. But the fuses proved imperfect, the shells exploded almost immediately upon starting on their journey. This of course will be at once remedied."
-- San Francisco Call, July 14, 1864 newspaper reporter Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
The Spanish recognized the strategic importance of the "Point" in 1776 when selecting the location of the Presidio of San Francisco. In 1794, they built the Castillo de San Joaquin and armed it which bronze and iron cannon.
In 1853, the United States Army blasted away the bluff where the Castillo de San Joauin stood in order to build a modern fortification closer to sea level-the fort at Fort Point. |