Images of Fort Point National Historic Site – Northwestern California, taken in August 2018.

Fort Point National Historic Site protects a huge fortification built in 1853 that sits immediately under the south side of the Golden Gate Bridge. In fact the design for the bridge was altered in the 1930’s to save the fort from destruction.

The fort’s design reminded me of the fortifications at Dry Tortugas in the Florida Keys. Thick masonry walls with cannon ports and even a lighthouse above it all. It’s quite a sight especially with the golden steel of the bridge directly above it but today was special for a different reason. It was Civil War Living History Day at Fort Point. I just have dumb luck with these sorts of things; any other day this week it would’ve been just me and the fort, but today the place was crawling with Civil War Soldiers and people in period dress. This happened to me at Grand Portage National Monument in Minnesota where the “Rendezvous”, a yearly gathering of late 18th and early 19th century enthusiasts re-enacting the annual gathering of Voyageurs, Ojibwe Indians, North West Company officials and French Canadian Soldiers celebrating the trading success of the previous year was taking place; and at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument where I stumbled into my visit there not knowing that the Real Bird Reenactment if the battle was taking place that week. Just dumb luck! And it really does make the photography more interesting when you have actual soldiers in the shots!

I chose to present several of the Civil War Soldier images in black and white as if they were taken in the late 19th century adding an interesting perspective to the gallery.