The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-09-25
A CALIFORNIA LANDMARK,
interesting CuriO in the Pos
session of Mrs. William
p. Edwards.
OLD FORT POINT DESCRIBED
Writer'S We're Not Accustomed tc
Name the Bay Entrance the
Golden Gate.

81 was interested in reading THE CALL s
account of the first firing OF the new gun
on the bluff above Fort Point" said Mary
Woodward Edwards, wife of William P.
Edwards of Petaluma, and daughter of the
late w. A.. Woodward, who was for years
one of the proprietors of the Alta Cali
| fornia newspaper. 1.-THE history of that
elevation of land is something that great
many people of San Francisco have for
gotten and great many more never heard
OF. In its present form it looks like a
large plateau. AS it came from nature S
hand it was a point of land running
sharply up almost to a point, and when
the Americans first arrived in San Fran
cisco was crowned by an old fort of Spanish
or Mexican origin.
Zone of the curios left by my father was
an issue of the Illustrated California
News. dated October Is, 1885, which con-
tanned an engraving of the old fort as it
appeared from the land"
The artists of those days were not as
skillful in many things as are the artists
of the present, but they managed to show
the outline fairly we'll. The editor of the
News published an article accompanying
the picture, in which he said:
On a bold and precipitous bluff which pre-
sents itself to the view of the inward bound
ships as they enter the head of our me gnifi-
cent bay stands an old Spanish or Mexican
fort, of which the above cut gives q represen-
tation taken from the road which leads to it
from the Presidio or garrison. From the di-
1apidated state of the parapet and the mate
rails which compose 1t we should aScribe con-
siderable antiquity to its origin, or else infer
that it must have suffered from some hostile
assault probably in one of the many revoiu-
tionary conflicts of which California has been
q he mt iQl Of. jg
structed are good burnt bricks and not of
adobes, as is the case with the Preside; but,
on the whole, as specimen OF fertilization,
the masonry is certainly as trail and contempt
ible as any enemy could wish. The platform
circle of the fort is about thirty or forty feet
in diameter and on Its battlement there is
space enough for upward OF six large guns.
II properly repaired and mounted this battery
would be an almost impregnable fortress from
the sea and could defy the entrance of an en-
envy through the straits of San Francisco Bay.
The editors were not then in the habit of
saying anything about the Golden Gate;
at least, that was not universal. Probably
some OF the more poetical writers had that
habit. The article continues:
The promontory upon which the fort stands
must be upward OF $50 feet high, and toward
the it presents perpendicular wall OF
adamantine rock, at the foot OF which roar the
breakers OF the everlasting swell which rolls in
from the broad Pacific.
The writer of the description at this
juncture speaks of what he calls Point
Lopez" which he says is named from the
vast number of sea lions which may be
seen at any time, sometimes INDUCING in
uncouth gambols and sometimes waging
desperate warfare among themselves. This
point is probably what is called Point
Lobos now.
The editor notes the fact that the inten-
ton of the United States Ordnance Depart
ment had been announced to complete
another fort little in the rear and COM
handing the old one at Fort Point, the
site of which was laid out by Captain
Warner of the United States engineers, the
same who was unfortunately killed by the
pass through the Sierra Nevadas.
The editor of the News concludes his ar
ticle With these words:
The view from the fort is very magnificent