Geology of the National Parks Through Picture - Fort Point NHS

My next post about the Geology of the National Parks Through Pictures is part of a series of parks that the wife and I hit while we were visiting the wineries in the Sonoma Valley.

You can find more Geology of the National Parks Through Pictures as well as my Geological State Symbols Across America series at my website Dinojim.com.

This post relates to the California Geological State Symbols post that came out earlier this week.

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Fort Point National Historic Site

The last National Park we visited on this trip was within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. 

Our entrance sign traditional pic with the Golden Gate Bridge and part of Fort Point in the background.

View of the fort from above. As you can partially see in this photo, the Fort sits on a promontory within the Golden Gate (the waterway). Promontories have an effect on the water that bends waves into them, forcing them to become eroded much faster than the surrounding areas. For that reason, the Fort is at a much higher risk of erosion than much of the surrounding land.

This sign goes into much of the detail of that erosion. Combine the risk of erosion just based on its physical location within the Golden Gate, but also the risk of sea-level rise due to climate change and you have a National Historic Site that is at significant risk to loss at some point in the future. This sign goes into many of the details of the risks of this location:

"In the 1850's, the US Army ranked this exposed, windy, and wave-beaten point as ideal for a major fortification to defend San Francisco Bay. This Civil War-era fort never faced enemy fire but is now under attack by rising seas and bigger storm waves. Earth's warming temperatures-mostly caused by human actions like burning fossil fuels-are melting glaciers, expanding sea water, and increasing storm intensity. How can we continue the army's legacy of defending our coasts in the face of sea level rise?"

Panoramic view of Fort Point with the Golden Gate Bridge overhead.