Battery Lancaster

Battery Lancaster. . , Defending the Golden Gate , Battery Lancaster's mission was unique among the many artillery installations on this bluff. From 1900 through World War I, Lancaster's three guns offered the only artillery coverage from the south for the narrowest part of the harbor entrance., In addition to the gun pit where you now stand, and two more gun emplacements to the left, Battery Lancaster featured several underground rooms and ammunition magazines. Most of these were buried or destroyed by construction of the Golden Gate Bridge in the early 1930s. However, portions survived and the battery saw service again during World War II., Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, soldiers were sent to defend the bridge. The commanding officer selected flat ground near the toll plaza for the company's antiaircraft guns and set up his headquarters, and quarters for his soldiers, in what remained of Battery Lancaster., World War II Defenses , Under the command of Captain Harry Freeman, World War II troops protected the Golden Gate Bridge with antiaircraft guns and lived in Battery Lancaster, in underground rooms beneath the bridge toll plaza., Captions: , . The 12-inch rifles installed in Battery Lancaster in 1900 were mounted on carriages that enabled them to drop down behind the battery's parapet and out of the enemy's sight after firing. These breech-loading guns were declared obsolete and removed in 1918. , . Battery Lancaster, the northernmost of Fort Winfield Scott's coastal defense batteries, was part of a chain of fortifications that spanned the Golden Gate. , . Have you noticed the large metal rings on the concrete walls? They were used to install the enormous gun that once occupied this gun pit. The rifle's heavy barrel was eased into place with cables that ran through the rings. , . Captain Harry Freeman and company mascot, circa 1942.