Presidio of San Francisco in San Francisco City and County, California — The American West (Pacific Coastal)
Fort Point Arch
Photographed By Duane and Tracy Marsteller, July 3, 2021
1. Fort Point Arch Marker
At the south (San Francisco) end of the suspension bridge, a large steel arch carries the roadway deck over Fort Point, the brick fort below.
Fort Point was completed in 1861, long before the Golden Gate Bridge was constructed in the 1930s. The chief engineer planning the new bridge, Joseph Strauss, preserved the historic fort by spanning over it with an arch bridge.
A suspension bridge is the structural opposite of an arch.
The curving cables of a suspension bridge are in tension, experiencing pulling forces. The opposite or upside down picture of those curves looks like an arch. The forces in the arch, compression forces, are the opposite of the tension forces that the suspension bridge cables experience.
A tension force is a force that pulls. The curving cables pull on anchorages at the two ends of a suspension bridge. Those anchorages embedded in the earth must supply reaction forces, exerted outward, to withstand the tension in the cables that tries to pull the anchorages inward.
Caption: (shown right) The steel arch spans 318 ft (97 m) over the historic Fort Point.
Erected 2016 by Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District.
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Location. 37° 48.487′ N, 122° 28.551′ W. Marker is in San Francisco, California, in San Francisco City and County. It is in Presidio of San Francisco. Marker can be reached from Coastal Trail. Marker is in the Golden Gate Bridge Vista Point South. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: San Francisco CA 94129, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Working Under Water (here, next to this marker); A Bathtub for the South Tower (here, next to this marker); Engineering the Design (here, next to this marker); World's Tallest Bridge Towers (here, next to this marker); Making the Impossible, Possible: The Story of the Golden Gate Bridge (here, next to this marker); Spinning the Main Cables (here, next to this marker); Bridging the Gate — the Beginning (here, next to this marker); Hanging the Roadway Deck (here, next to this marker). Touch for a list and map of all markers in San Francisco.
Photographed By Duane and Tracy Marsteller, July 3, 2021
2. Fort Point Arch Marker
Credits. This page was last revised on February 7, 2023. It was originally submitted on July 6, 2021, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This page has been viewed 182 times since then and 38 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on July 6, 2021, by Duane and Tracy Marsteller of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
