Fort Point was one of the first places I visited when I moved to the Bay Area in 1988. In spite of its appeal, I never once made it back to this spot in the six years I lived here. And Laura had never been here! Great luck – my return (and Laura’s debut) was on a gorgeous day – one of the nicest either of us has seen here.
There are signs up everywhere saying Fort Point is closed for repairs, but the door is open. We speak to the ranger, who says they’ve just reopened. What luck! Since it looks closed, we have the place to ourselves for quite a while before the rest of the visitors figure it out.
Fort Point is an 1850s masonry structure with spectacular views of the Golden Gate. Fort Point was slated for demolition during the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, but fortunately the engineers thought better of it and constructed the bridge over the fort. Up on the top level, we are staring at the unmistakable orange archways of the Golden Gate Bridge!
What a moment. We are three stories up on the top level of a Civil War fort. We have magnificent views of the Marin Headlands and San Francisco Bay. And we are right under one of the most iconic bridges in the world, with traffic whizzing over our heads. It’s beautiful. It’s thrilling.
One famous person is immortalized in the first shot. It’s hard to miss her.
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