The Presidio: Guardian of the Golden Gate

Authorized to select sites for a mission and a Presidio, Anza soon accomplished these tasks and returned to Mexico and then on to Spain, leaving the details and the construction to others. On June 19, 1776, Lt. Jose Joaquin Moraga, together with a small group of soldiers, settlers and padres from the church, arrived and began to work almost immediately on the Presidio. Work on the mission began soon after. The supply ship "The San Carlos,” sent from Monterey, was welcomed on Aug. 18.

The Presidio was dedicated on Sept. 17, 1776. With the soldiers lined up in front of him, Lt. Moraga, in his best uniform (a bright blue dress-coat with red collar and lapels) raised his sword to each of the four directions of the earth, declaring by this ritual act that this land was now the possession of King Carlos of Spain. The Spanish flag went up.

The site of the original Presidio was a flat area of only about 200 yards square, close to a point of land with an elevation of some 97 feet, which they called La Punta de Cantil Blanco. The white cliffs overlooked the Bay and had a good view of the Golden Gate strait. A temporary fort, with buildings constructed of adobe and mud and thatched roofs, was put together (Another fort which the Spanish named Castillo de San Joaquin was built several years later on the steep bluffs and where cannons were installed to further guard the opening to the Bay. It too did not weather well and soon deteriorated).

There was a small spring near the original site (El Polan) that furnished water for the Presidio. However, the soil and the climate in the area were not suitable for raising food for people or for critters. There were even too many horses for the limited grass available. The Presidio petitioned the authorities in Mexico City to use the area south of San Bruno Mountain to graze their horses, but the Mission Fathers vehemently opposed this as they were using the same natural corral that was formed by the Bay to the east and by thick groves of willow trees to the south along Colma Creek. The church was using the land for grazing cattle and raising food. The Presidio finally won approval for their horses and even had some fun along the way by racing them on a flat area that would later be called Tanforan Race Track in San Bruno.

Life at the Presidio was slow and at times relatively easy. There were only about 100 soldiers based there in Alta California, with orders to guard Spain’s new territory of 50,000 square miles. The soldiers were on patrol between the Presidio and San Jose much of the time. The weather was an important influence on the patrols. In the dry season, travel was easier, but when the winter rains arrived, all travel slowed. Paths and roads were a muddy quagmire. Getting to San Pedro Valley (in Pacifica) along the coast took almost a day. The El Camino Real was impassable in the rainy season.

The government in Mexico City seemed to have forgotten the pioneers on the Peninsula. Very little aid was received by the Spanish garrison and it was greatly under-staffed during most of its existence. The Spanish flag came down and the Mexican flag went up after Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1822, but the Mexican takeover did little to improve the situation at the Presidio. The people of Alta California were on their own.

In 1834, General Mariano Vallejo, the Presidio Commandant, moved his soldiers north to Sonoma to defend against the Russians and the Americans. After the United States declared war on Mexico in 1846, John Fremont and his men rowed across the Golden Gate passageway from Marin County and, in a largely symbolic action, rendered the rusty old cannons at the Castillo inoperable by spiking their torch-holes. There was no opposition from the defenders of the Presidio. There was nobody there. The Mexican flag came down and the American flag went up. In March of 1847, American troops were formally installed at the Presidio, and the property — close to 1,500 acres eventually — has remained in American hands ever since.