Fort Point SF
- adriannajensen
- Jul 27, 2023
- 2 min read
Hi, friends! :) A fort point article caught my eye… I highlighted some key points that I thought were pertinent to the article’s message. I found myself wanting to know more about this historical structure in SF firstly, because it provides an unexpected sight-seeing attraction that you wouldn’t normally expect (i.e. Coit Tower, Ferry Building, Golden Gate, etc.). And secondly, because I’m a fan of the Fort Point Kolsch Beer. 😝 … enjoy!
“Fort Point is memorable because of how it responds to the particularities of its unique site, a setting where a bluff was dynamited to make room for the fort constructed between 1853 and 1859 of locally produced brick and granite slabs quarried near Folsom, 100 miles to the northeast.”
Beauty beyond infrastructure:
“Oh, and proximity to the Golden Gate Bridge that straddles it. Literally. A steep arc of trussed steel arcs above the relic to support the bridge’s roadway, lashed to concrete towers on either side, yet there’s an artistry that radiates a beauty beyond infrastructure.”
Notes:
“Serendipity? Far from it.
Fort Point’s continued existence shows that San Francisco’s instinct for self-preservation dates back, well, before nearly all of us were born.”
How to build: efficiency.
“The efficient way to build the Golden Gate Bridge would have been to level the fort and construct the span’s southern anchorage in its place. But Joseph Strauss, the chief engineer for the bridge project, changed his mind after visiting the obsolete fortress that the War Department had boarded up a few years before.”
Low vantage point (although never needed), but I’d like to see it built that way… better to have it and not need it. Than the other way around 😉:
“The fort’s setting is low by design, hugging sea level so that cannons could take effective aim on the enemy ships (none ever arrived.)”
Ending
“This is the beauty of Fort Point, and why I settled on it as San Francisco’s bucket-list building despite rivals with more dazzling details. It is the past, present and future combined in a way that defies simple narratives — just like the uncompromising, ultimately seductive metropolis in which it resides. “
Why did he write the article?
John’s article is supposed to offer up sightseeing tips/ recommend a place in SF to visit… and the answer might surprise you.
“Not City Hall, or the Ferry Building or some wood-clad wonder on Russian Hill. Quite the opposite. I offered up a defiant masonry bulwark where the ocean meets the bay, underneath the exponentially more scenic Golden Gate Bridge.”
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/fort-point-historic-s-f-building-everyone-needs-18129234.php#photo-23898345
Many thanks, for tuning in! More posts on my blog to come soon. 😊
Your earth friend,
Adrianna [AJ]
UC Berkeley Class of 2019
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