Fort Point: A Bastion of Memory

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“FORT POINT, A BASTION OF MEMORY”, is a video artwork projected onto the second floor west bastion brick walls at Fort Point National Historic Site, in San Francisco.  It is currently on view at the Second Floor West Bastion, Friday-Sunday from 10am - 4:30pm, July 5 - December 30, 2024

Over the course of 45 minutes, hundreds of photographs visually explore the history of the fort during the early 20th century, focusing on the Fort Point Life Saving Station, Light Station and during construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. The piece is narrated by Captain Cornelius Sullivan who served at the Fort Point Life Saving Station, Meriam Nagel, a member of the multi-generational Nagel family, who grew up at the Fort Point Light Station, from 1906 - 1920 and sisters Louis Cook and Josephine Hettel who lived at the Fort Point Light Station from 1923 until shortly before its closure in 1933.  Evan “Slim” Lambert, recounts surviving the Golden Gate Bridge construction accident of February 1937, in which he attempted to save the life of Fred Dummatzen.   Photographs of the Golden Gate Bridge, taken by Dummatzen during its construction accompany Lambert's account.  

The darkened casemates, formerly housing instruments of war, are an unexpected venue, from which to present this new and surprising interpretation of the Fort’s history.  The Battery is an ideal blank canvas on which to project compelling, site-specific visual and oral histories which we hope can add dynamic historic context, dimension and imagination to Fort Point.  

This video presents animated sequences created by artfully stitching together historic still photographs, with oral histories sourced from archival collections held at the Maritime National Historic Library, GGNRA Park Archives and Records Center (PARC), the Western Neighborhoods Project, and the San Francisco Labor Archive among others.

For those who are unable to access the second level a DVD is available from the Rangers upon request for viewing in the Fort Point Theatre.