The
Presidio of San Francisco is a park and former
United States Army post on the northern tip of the
San Francisco Peninsula in the city of
San Francisco, California, forming part of the
Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The
presidio was established as a fortified location in 1776, when
New Spain founded it to gain a foothold in
Alta California and the
San Francisco Bay. It passed to Mexico in 1820, and in turn to the United States in 1848. As part of a military reduction program under the
Base Realignment and Closure process from 1988, the
United States Congress voted to end the presidio's status as an active military installation. In 1994, it was transferred to the
National Park Service, ending 219 years of military use and beginning its next phase of mixed commercial and public use. This lithograph, published in 1822, shows the Presidio of San Francisco and its surroundings during the Spanish era, with the
Golden Gate visible in the background to the right of the image.
Lithograph credit: Victor Adam, after Louis Choris; restored by Adam Cuerden