Occupying most of the northwest tip of the San Francisco peninsula, the PRESIDIO covers some 1500 acres and is home to 75 miles of forested roads. After a hundred years of sporadic US military use, it became a national park in October 1994, though many of the park’s buildings have been leased out to various private interests, and wrangling continues over how to develop the new national park. The Presidio Trust Board favors tearing down much of the abandoned military housing to create open space. Mayor Willie Brown pushed to convert the uninhabited buildings into low-income housing – dwellings he later announced would be put on the market at full value. Star Wars creator George Lucas, meanwhile, won tentative approval to build a huge film studio on part of the land, bringing conservationists to court with concerns about the impact such a project would have on the environment.
For the moment, the Presidio offers little more than a scenic ride through its eucalyptus-scented highways or a leisurely hike through its numerous trails. Strolling or cycling along part of the Pacific Coast Trail, part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, is not-to-be-missed for the stunning views across the bay and back to the skyline. Tracing the northern limit of town from the western side of the Golden Gate Bridge through Lincoln Park and all the way to Land’s End past Ocean Beach, there are plenty of side trails winding down to the waterfront to explore. Plan three or four hours for a leisurely one-way hike.
In the 1770s, the Presidio was founded as a frontier station for the Spanish Empire, which garrisoned the distant peninsula to forestall British and Russian claims on the San Francisco Bay. In 1822, it became the northernmost outpost of the new Mexican republic, who abandoned it in 1835 to move north to Sonoma. By 1846, it was occupied by the American armed forces, who billeted their soldiers here for the Modoc War in 1870 and their campaigns against the Apaches in the southwest. The US Army started to develop the inherited adobe structures, but the Presidio didn’t take on its present appearance until the 1880s, when an environmentally minded major initiated a program of forestation that changed it from a windswept, sandy piece of coastline into a dense thicket. Afterward it served mainly as a medical and administrative army base; the only time its harbor defenses were activated was for a brief period during World War II. Today, almost thirty acres of the Presidio is given over to the San Francisco National Military Cemetery – a sobering sight and, surprisingly, the only graveyard in San Francisco.
The main entrance to the Presidio is by way of Lombard Street, west of Pacific Heights and the Marina, where a huge gate bearing the figures of Liberty and Victory leads to the main quadrangle of buildings that once functioned as a military headquarters. There’s a small chapel and adobe officers’ mess, but the only thing you can actually visit is the Presidio Museum, on Lincoln Boulevard and Funston Avenue (Wed–Sun noon–4pm; free), in the original hospital building. In addition to bits on military history, detailed models and maps trace how San Francisco’s appearance has changed over the centuries, showing which parts of the city were wiped out by the 1906 earthquake. Further along, the Presidio Visitor Center, in Building 102 on the west side of Montgomery Street (daily 9am–5pm; tel 415/561-4314), is a good source of information if you wish to explore the area further; pick up the free ParkNews here for details on the numerous walks, tours and activities offered in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area year-round.
The Presidio is at its most dramatic at the Fort Point National Historic Site at the head of Marine Drive (Wed–Sun 10am–5pm; free), a brick fortress seawall built in the 1850s to guard the bay. You may recognize it as the site of Kim Novak’s suicide attempt in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. From here, where the surf crashes and the Pacific stretches interminably, you get a good sense of the Presidio as the westernmost frontier of the nation. It was originally to have been demolished to make way for the Golden Gate Bridge, but the redesign of the southern approach left it intact, and the bridge high above adds to the theatricality. Supposedly, the water here makes for one of the best local surfing spots, provided you don’t mind risking your life in the violent currents and undertow.
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