To protect against encroachment by the British and Russians, Spain selected Punta del Cantil Blanco, a promontory with a high white cliff ( cantil blanco) located at the narrowest part of the bay's entrance, to construct a fortification. In 1769 Spain occupied the San Francisco area and by 1776 had established the area's first European settlement, with a mission and a presidio. It is now popular as a tourist viewing point of the Golden Gate Bridge directly over top of it. The fort is now protected as Fort Point National Historic Site, a United States National Historic Site administered by the National Park Service as a unit of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The fort was completed just before the American Civil War by the United States Army, to defend San Francisco Bay against hostile warships. It is also the geographic name of the promontory upon which the fort and the southern approach of the Golden Gate Bridge were constructed. National Register of Historic Placesįort Point, known historically as the Castillo de San Joaquín ( Spanish for 'Saint Joachim's Castle') is a masonry seacoast fortification located on the southern side of the Golden Gate at the entrance to San Francisco Bay.
