The Presidio - Two Centuries Guarding the Golden Gate

The Presidio - Two Centuries Guarding the Golden Gate

Photo: Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)

A stop on San Francisco, District by District, a free self-guided tour.

For thousands of years this corner of the peninsula was home to the Yelamu, an Ohlone people who fished and gathered shellfish along the shore. In 1776 Spanish soldiers and settlers who came north with the expedition of Juan Bautista de Anza founded a presidio, a fortified post, to guard the entrance to the bay, the same year friars founded Mission Dolores. Mexico took control after its independence, and in 1846 the United States seized it.

For nearly 150 years the U.S. Army ran the Presidio. Troops sailed from here to the Philippines in 1898, refugees camped here after 1906, and in 1942 General John DeWitt signed the orders here that forced Japanese Americans on the West Coast from their homes. In 1994 the Army left, and the post became part of a national park.

Several Muni lines and the Presidio's own shuttle serve the park; check current routes. The mini tour runs from the Main Post to the Golden Gate Bridge and takes about two hours.

Getting here: From Russian Hill, take a bus or rideshare west about 4 kilometers to the Main Post; check Muni and the Presidio shuttle for current routes.

Did you know?: The Presidio served as a military post under three flags, Spain, Mexico and the United States, for 218 years, from 1776 until 1994.

Photo op: Stand at the edge of the Main Parade lawn to frame the long row of red-brick barracks, then head to the bluffs above Crissy Field for the Golden Gate Bridge.

More on Wikipedia: Presidio of San Francisco · Juan Bautista de Anza · Yelamu · John L. DeWitt

Stops on this tour

  1. Ferry Building and the Embarcadero - Where the City Met the World
  2. Financial District and Jackson Square - Gold Rush on the Old Shoreline
  3. Chinatown - The Neighborhood That Refused to Move
  4. North Beach and Telegraph Hill - Little Italy and the Beats
  5. Fisherman's Wharf - Italian Boats and Old Ships
  6. Nob Hill and Russian Hill - Cable Cars, Mansions and the Great Fire
  7. The Presidio - Two Centuries Guarding the Golden Gate
  8. Japantown and the Fillmore - Two Communities, One Neighborhood
  9. Haight-Ashbury - From Victorian Suburb to Summer of Love
  10. Golden Gate Park - Sand Dunes Turned Into a Park
  11. The Castro - A Neighborhood That Became a Movement
  12. The Mission - Where San Francisco Began
  13. Civic Center - Domes, Charters and Protest
  14. South of Market - From Rincon Hill to the Tech Boom