Battery Lancaster

Battery Lancaster defended the Golden Gate with a mission unique among the artillery installations on this bluff. From 1900 through World War I, its three guns provided the only artillery coverage from the south for the narrowest part of the harbor entrance. In addition to one gun pit and two more gun emplacements, it included several underground rooms and ammunition magazines. Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge in the early 1930s buried or destroyed most of these features, but portions survived and the battery returned to service during World War II. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, soldiers were sent to defend the bridge, and their commanding officer chose flat ground near the toll plaza for the company's antiaircraft guns while establishing headquarters and quarters in what remained of Battery Lancaster. Under Captain Harry Freeman, World War II troops protected the Golden Gate Bridge with antiaircraft guns and lived in Battery Lancaster's underground rooms beneath the bridge toll plaza.

San Francisco, California · United States