Retired National Park Service Ranger John Martini presented an illustrated history of the forts that once defended San Francisco from an enemy that never came. Starting with old Fort Point, completed in 1861, he traced the evolving story of the bay’s fortifications from the earliest Spanish adobe batteries up through the Civil War and culminated with the nuclear-tipped Nike missiles of the 1970s. He responded to questions from members of the audience at the Fort Mason Conference Center in San Francisco.
“Sentries at the Golden Gate: From the Gold Rush to the Cold War” was a program of the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society marking the sesquicentennial anniversary of the completion of Fort Point.