Template:POTD/2023-08-22
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