Historic Landmarks of San Francisco

When Captain Juan Bautista de Anza founded San Francisco in 1776 he determined that a fort should be built to guard the entrance to the Bay. The site he selected, a promontory of serpentine rock, Anza named Punta del Cantil Blanco (Point of Steep White Rock). Eighteen years later the fort, to be known as Castillo de San Joaquin, was finally built. Located near the Presidio, but separate from it, the Castillo was dedicated December 9, 1794. The horseshoe-shaped, adobe fort was 125 feet long and 105 feet wide. Its ten inch-thick walls were pierced by fourteen brick-lined gun ports, although the Spaniards were never able to mount more than eight brass nine-pound cannons. Total construction cost was $6400.

The garrison consisted of six artillerymen commanded by a corporal. Activity at the fort was minimal. In 1811 several of the cannon were fired at Russian Aleuts entering the Bay after sea otter. Like the nearby Presidio, the Castillo was chronically undermanned, undersupplied, and neglected by Spanish and Mexican authorities alike. In 1824 the Russian frigate Predpriste had to send powder to the fort so that that garrison could return the vessel's salute.

Within the next few years the Castillo was allowed to fall into ruin. The end came July 1, 1846, when American insurgents led by John C. Frémont crossed in boats from the Marin shore and gratuitously spiked the already useless guns of the abandoned fort. Eight days later Captain John B. Montgomery claimed San Francisco for the United States.

The adobe ruins of the Castillo remained unmolested until 1854, when the U.S. Army, confirming Captain Anza's judgement, determined to construct a new fort on the Punta del Cantil Blanco. During the next six years the remains of the old Castillo were leveled and the promontory was excavated to bedrock. The promontory and the splendid new structure built on it by the U.S. Army both came to be known as Fort Point. Due to the excavation, the present fortress stands on bedrock 60 feet below the site of the Castillo de San Joaquin, which was itself 100 feet above the waters of the Golden Gate.

A plaque memorializing the Castillo de San Joaquin, placed in 1955 by the San Francisco Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, is mounted at the southeast corner of Fort Point, to the right of the main portal. This marker also commemorates the entrance of the San Carlos into San Francisco Bay, but erroneously has the vessel anchoring off Fort Point.