Presidio Battery West

Battery West consists of earth-covered brick magazine buildings embedded into the coastal bluffs of the Presidio. Built in eighteen seventy-three, the site was a direct response to the American Civil War, which proved that traditional masonry forts like nearby Fort Point could not withstand the power of new, rifled artillery. The United States Army moved its defenses behind earthen berms, creating this battery to house twelve fifteen-inch Rodman cannons in the open spaces between the magazines.