Fort Funston

Fort Funston is a former harbor defense installation located in the southwestern corner of San Francisco. Formerly known as the Lake Merced Military Reservation, the fort is now a protected area within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. It was named in honor of Frederick N. Funston (1865–1917), a Major General in the United States Army with strong connections to San Francisco, and included several artillery batteries. The fort was constructed upon windswept headlands along the Pacific coast and Ocean Beach below, above steep sandstone cliffs that provide a nesting habitat for a colony of bank swallows (Riparia riparia) The last remnants of a sand dune ecosystem that once covered the western half of San. Francisco grow along the top of the headlands, with trailheads forming part of the California Coastal Trail that runs through San Francisco County. In 1936–1939 Battery Davis was built at Fort Funston, housing two 16-inch Mark 2 Navy guns. These 143-ton guns were moved on railroad cars in 1937 from Mare Island Naval Shipyard to Southern Pacific's Ocean View Station. The gun batteries were declared obsolete shortly after World War II, but the anti-aircraft battery was demolished during the Cold War.