San Francisco's Marin Headlands

Some photos of the Marin Headlands. This area has many historical fortifications and bunkers dating from before the civil war up to the cold war.

Battery Ridge / Spencer:
      
An pair of 1870s gun battery high above the Golden Gate. Interestingly enough, the roof of the base-end station was made of glass circles embedded in concrete. It looked a lot like the skylights into the Seattle underground.

Battery Orlando Wagner:
    
This one had a few underground magazines and tunnels, including one with a homeless occupation.

Battery Construction 129:

          
This fort was started just before WWII and intended to be armed with 16" naval cannons. The site consists of an extensive tunnel system, rangefinding station, a separate command station, a sub-level escape tunnel, and a separate access tunnel through the hill behind it. The actual battery tunnels are well sealed, but the access tunnels and gun turrets are open.


Battery Rathbone-Mcindoe:

    
Another turn-of-the-century fort, deactivated before WWII.


Base End Stations:
          
          
These sites were the spotting and rangefinding stations that acted as lookouts for the various forts. Several eras are represented in these structures scattered throughout the hills. Some sites were combined base end stations for multiple gun batteries, and some fed ranges to only a single battery.

Mine Casemate 1:
        
This large artificial hill hides a number of underground rooms. The site controlled a number of ocean mine fields around the Golden Gate, turning them off for known traffic. Later it may have been converted for use as a fallout shelter, there was asystem of gas filters and a sign listing shelter capacity. I don't know what the building outside the bunker was for, although it had a number of communication cables entering the basement.

Battery Mendel:
                    
One of the few accessible bunkers, and popular with the taggers. I used this one to play with my new remote flash. This one was built in 1905 and armed with dissapearing cannons to attack enemy ships. The fort was deactivated in WWII when it was considered obsolete.

Battery Wallace:
  
Battery Wallace. The underground magazines were originally constructed in 1917, with the huge overhanging gun casemates added in 1942.

Battery Alexander:
  
A mortar battery, and two deer.

Nike sites:
  
The Nike museum (SF-86) and the SF-87 radar site atop Battery Construction 129.

Other/Unknown:
    
I don't know what these are, the last two could be storage tanks of some kind. The first is one of two bunkers that didn't appear on my maps, I believe they were shell storage magazines.
 
 

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