Historical Marker · No. 82
Castillo de San Joaquín
San Francisco, San Francisco County · California
Erected by San Francisco Chapters, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1955
No state plaque stands here; the tablet on the fort's wall is the Daughters of the American Revolution's, from 1955. The Castillo it names has no ground left. Its adobe crumbled in the wind and rain after the Mexican army left in 1835, and in 1853 Army workers blasted the ninety-foot White Cliff down to fifteen feet above the water to seat Fort Point where it stood. The renaming the tablet records never caught on. The fort outlived the Golden Gate Bridge's plans only because Joseph Strauss redesigned the bridge to arch over it.
What the plaque says
The first ship to enter San Francisco Bay, the San Carlos (Capt. Ayala), dropped anchor off this point August 5, 1775. Lieut.-Colonel Don Juan Bautista de Anza planted the cross on Cantil Blanco (White Cliff) March 28, 1776. The first fortification, Castillo de San Joaquin, was completed December 8, 1794 by Jose Joaquin de Arrillaga, sixth Governor of California. In 1853 United States Army engineers cut down the cliff and built Fort Point, re-named Fort Winfield Scott in 1882. This fort is a partial replica of Fort Sumter and is the only brick fort west of the Mississippi. Its sea wall has stood undamaged for 100 years. This tablet placed by San Francisco Chapters Daughters of the American Revolution 1955
Where it stands
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