The Presidio of San Francisco is a national park and former U.S. Army military fort on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California.
Part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the site has acted as a strategic fortified location since September 17, 1776, when New Spain established the presidio to gain a foothold in Alta California and the San Francisco Bay. Ownership of the fort transferred to Mexico following that country's independence from Spain and in 1848 to the United States following the Mexican American War. 
As part of a 1989 military reduction program under the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, Congress voted to end the Presidio's status as an active military installation of the U.S. Army. On October 1, 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.
