Fort Point National Historic Site

Fort Point National Historic Site
Fort Point beneath the Golden Gate Bridge
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Nearest city	San Francisco, California, U.S.
Coordinates	37°48′38″N 122°28′38″W / 37.81056°N 122.47722°W / 37.81056; -122.47722
Area	29 acres (12 ha)
Established	16 October 1970
Visitors	1,682,041 (in 2005)
Governing body	National Park Service
Website	Fort Point National Historic Site
Fort Point
Fort Winfield Scott
Near San Francisco, California in United States
Type	Harbor defense installation
Site information
Owner	United States Army
Controlled by	6th Air Defense Artillery Regiment
Site history
Built	1861 (1861)
Fate	Decommission 1970
California Historical Landmark
Official name	Castillo De San Joaquín[1]
Reference no.	82
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Designated	10/16/1970
Reference no.	70000146[2]

Fort 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. It is also the geographic name of the promontory upon which the fort and the southern approach of the Golden Gate Bridge were constructed.^[3]

The fort was completed just before the American Civil War by the United States Army, to defend San Francisco Bay against hostile warships. 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. It is now popular as a tourist viewing point of the Golden Gate Bridge directly over top of it.