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SF’s New “Battery Bluff” Park Opens in the Presidio Spring 2022

Six acres will offer sweeping views of the Golden Gate, Angel Island, and Alcatraz.
By - posted 1/12/2022 No Comment

This spring, The Presidio is getting ready to unveil a new visitor destination on top of the Presidio Parkway tunnels along Lincoln Boulevard near San Francisco National Cemetery. As part of the project, they’re also restoring surrounding parklands from the new 6-acre Battery Bluff down to Cavalry Bowl and the Presidio Pet Cemetery.

These lands, 16 acres in all (which includes the Cavalry Bowl site), were disrupted when the Doyle Drive highway to the Golden Gate Bridge was replaced with the Presidio Parkway.​

The new site will be known as the Battery Bluff and will open to the public spring 2022.

Battery Bluff will feature beautiful overlooks with sweeping views of the Golden Gate, Angel Island, and Alcatraz. Visitors will be able to enjoy picnic tables, gardens, and benches.

The site will also include a new multi-use segment of the Presidio Promenade trail that extends from the Korean War Memorial to the Cavalry Bowl and beyond to Crissy Field and the Golden Gate Bridge. The project will also stabilize the historic gun batteries – Blaney, Slaughter and Sherwood – nestled in the bluff.

Visitors will now be able to access parts of the Presidio that have been off-limits to the public for 80 years.

Summary of Battery Bluff Amenities

  • Overlooks with new views of the Golden Gate, Angel Island, Alcatraz and the city skyline
  • Picnic tables and benches
  • Interpretive signage telling the history of this storied place
  • Native and ornamental gardens planted with 60,000 plants (90% native) as well as trees
  • A multi-use, accessible section of the Presidio Promenade trail extending from the Korean War Memorial to the Cavalry Bowl, Crissy Field, and the Golden Gate Bridge
  • First-time ever public access to four newly preserved historic batteries – Slaughter, Baldwin, Sherwood and Blaney.

WHY From 2009 through 2015, Caltrans replaced the seismically-unsafe Doyle Drive highway with the more elegant Presidio Parkway. When work to rebuild the highway was complete, Caltrans provided funding to the Presidio Trust to redesign and revitalize 75 acres of parkland damaged by the construction. The Presidio Trust is restoring these areas with native vegetation, trail improvements, and new spaces for the public to enjoy.

ALSO COMING SOON – PRESIDIO TUNNEL TOPS The Presidio Parkway placed traffic underground in tunnels at two locations so that park improvements could be made above. One site is where the Battery Bluff is being created. The second at a site known as the Presidio Tunnel Tops. Presidio Tunnel Tops includes 14 acres of trails, gardens, overlooks, and gathering areas, as well as a youth campus. Presidio Tunnel Tops will open in spring 2022.​

Read more at Presidio Trust