I just found it last week end. Needs to be excavated from the bottom. Rumored to house the ORIGINAL WW2 war rooms...

1.

Posted by droopyeye I just found it last week end. Needs to be excavated from the bottom. Rumored to house the ORIGINAL WW2 war rooms... 1. click to view

That's intriguing. I haven't heard of the war rooms before.

That looks fascinating.

WTF is the "original war rooms" supposed to mean? Military fortifications in SF date back to the 1700s (ever wonder why the former SF Army post had a Spanish word in its name -- Presidio?). US Army fortifications in SF date back to the Civil War -- The Rodman cannons on Fort Mason, Ft McDowell on Angel Island, Alcatraz Island, etc.

In terms of WW-II, there were several important ("war rooms") in the SF Bay area. Naval District CP in a couple rooms in the basement of Bldg 1 at Treasure Island, Harbor Defense CP & a couple others on the Presidio of SF, air defense/fighter intercept CP in Berkeley, AAF regional CP in a commercial bldg on Montgomery St in downtown SF, etc.

I think i know where that door in-question is, but send me the info via PM & I'll research it & share at least basic info in what it is, hopefully ending the "war room" rumor quickly.

/-/ooligan

From what I have been told, Fort Mason is riddled with tunnels and bunkers. I don't know how true it is, but that door sure makes it look interesting.

Posted by droopyeye From what I have been told, Fort Mason is riddled with tunnels and bunkers. I don't know how true it is, but that door sure makes it look interesting.

I wish Ft Mason was, but it's not. Doesn't mean that there aren't things of interest there, but no labyrinth of tunnels & bunkers festooning the place...

I thought the photo of the door looked a little familiar, and your confirming Ft Mason leads me to think that old doorway is associated with the nearby old Ft Mason trolley/railroad tunnel, as-in an emergency egress/ingress door or something in-case there had been an incident blocking the rail tunnel.


/-/oolie

Proper link: https://www.google...zad3X4SQ!2e0?hl=en

I am just passing on info and a story. I know nothing about the bunkers in the area and just thought it interesting enough to pass on for those who may want to undertake an adventure or two. And by 'original war rooms,' I was told it was where the US Army first held court at the start of WW2 due to the fact that there was no other 'suitable' fortifications and because at the time no 'modern' armament could penetrate the reinforced concrete used to build the bunkers and whatnot. Don't shot the messenger, please.

Poked around that area last week. It looks like it may be a part of the railroad complex (see the brick path that seems like tram stop and a grassy area that may once have housed a building). I wonder if it was originally something like a rail storage room or secondary tunnel like /-/ooligan said. Still, Fort Mason was the location of the Quartermaster/Transportation Corps during WWII, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was used as an emergency shelter/bunker during the conflict, especially during the 1941-1942 scare of Japanese invasion. The tunnel itself was used by the military since the 1910s for transporting troops to Crissy Field.

Edit: Found it:
http://www.nps.gov...books/foma/clr.pdf
Page 274

Just a reminder about basic war room rules in case anyone does gain access.

Jeff

Nice find! There are a couple such structures remaining in the SF Bay area (none easily open/explorable). Based on another one from that era I've been into, if you were to open that door you'd be immediately met by a concrete stairwell leading down roughly 20' (depending on water table) to an open room about 30' long & 12' wide. That room used to have electrical equipment & mine control gear in it, and an approx. 3'x3' pit opening into a water-filled tunnel that would have led out into SF Bay to connect the command-detonated mines (also known as torpedoes back then) to the control gear via hardened, waterproof cables.

The Harbor Defense Command Post (located elsewhere) would have communicated with the mine casemate via underground telephone cable system & told them when to set-off certain sections of the mine field.

/-/oolie

Posted by Clostridium Poked around that area last week. It looks like it may be a part of the railroad complex (see the brick path that seems like tram stop and a grassy area that may once have housed a building). I wonder if it was originally something like a rail storage room or secondary tunnel like /-/ooligan said. Still, Fort Mason was the location of the Quartermaster/Transportation Corps during WWII, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was used as an emergency shelter/bunker during the conflict, especially during the 1941-1942 scare of Japanese invasion. The tunnel itself was used by the military since the 1910s for transporting troops to Crissy Field. Edit: Found it: http://www.nps.gov...books/foma/clr.pdf Page 274 click to view

So, is anyone up for a little Harbor Defense foray...

Posted by droopyeye So, is anyone up for a little Harbor Defense foray...

Gentle reminder: Any federal property 100 years or older is automatically considered to be of historic significance, and any damage to historic federal property carries significant additional penalties, both prison time & monetary fines.

/-/oolie

Posted by /-/ooligan Gentle reminder: Any federal property 100 years or older is automatically considered to be of historic significance, and any damage to historic federal property carries significant additional penalties, both prison time & monetary fines. /-/oolie

I didn't know this, thanks for the heads up.

I communicated with someone who has personal familiarity with the structure in-question, and he confirmed that it's a one-room facility that's completely devoid of any equipment.


Keep in-mind that with most gun emplacements, 'bunkers,' base end stations, etc. in the Harbor Defenses of San Francisco area, they were pretty much left open to the elements for decades -- explorers, scrappers, vandals, partiers, arsonists, satanists, motorcycle gangs, taggers, history buffs, homeless, etc. had a long time to do their things inside. Only a very few sites that were very remote, very hidden, or were located within what remained an active army post until the 1990s or early 2000s (PSF/Ft Scott, Ft Mason, Ft Baker) didn't get heavily trashed by a gamut of groups, though even being on an active post didn't protect them fully.

In 1990, the NPS & Army started sealing up the old facilities out of liability concerns.

For example, Battery Davis at Fort Funston is huge, and sealed-up very well. When I first came across it in 2002, I wondered what was left inside & it was easy to fantasize that all sorts of cool things could have been entombed in there. A few years later, I got the very rare opportunity to spend about an hour inside. I was vey disappointed to find that it was completely trashed -- several inches of sand on the floor, old graffiti, broken glass, soot all over the ceiling, etc. turns out it'd been completely open for a long time, and especially after the army shut-down the Nike missile site nearby, Ft Funston was kind of considered no-man's land -- Army owned it but didn't patrol it, SFPD didn't go there because it was the Army's problem, etc.

So as a result, it musta been one hell of a great party place in the 1970s & 1980s. I've heard for a while a biker gang even used it as their clubhouse or at least their own private party spot. Two 'Streets of San Francisco' episodes had scenes filmed inside, and it was very trashed back then, circa 1974. Like the many other HDSF sites, Battery Davis, it's Plotting, Spotting & Radio Room, and the AAA Battery magazine plus all but one (the one now down on the beach) BESs at Funston were sealed-up in 1990.



So it's real easy to get excited about a mysterious, sealed door at an old Bay Area Coast Defense site, but try to remember that prior to 1990, there's a good chance that the place was wide open for a long time & thus pretty trashed inside -- NOT worth the risk to get caught breaking into. NPS & Parks Police budget issues make it more likely you'll get arrested or at least ticketed & have to pay a big fine rather than just get yelled at & told to leave. Also understand that some old structures provide good contemporary storage space and thus have alarm systems going directly to NPS & Parks Police dispatch located at the old MP/Provost Marshals HQ on Fort Scott.

The best way to get inside some of these secured places is to form a dedicated. Reliable group of people to become NPS Volunteer In Park (VIPs) specializing in military history for the GGNRA, and commit to volunteering to help clean-up the grounds of one or more of the sites. Doing an actual restoration is unlikely for the time being, but you can help to at least preserve the site so that at some point in the future when better resources are available ($$$), it may be restored, thanks to the preservation efforts you did.

Battery Townsley at aft Cronkhite in the Marin Headlands is a perfect example of what a small group of dedicated volunteers (including me) can do over a period of time. it all started when a local military history buff named Chuck Wofford died & bequeathed a good chunk of $$ to the NPS, specifically to restore electricity to that facility. Chuck knew that with electricity there, we could light up the inside & then clean the place out, paint it, etc. & for the past 8 years or so, it's open once a month for VIP-led tours. Because the tours have gone so well, the NPS coughed up a huge amount of money so that an old gun tube weighed 120 tons could be trucked to the site from Where it'd been stored at an Army facility in Hawthorne Nevada.

Another example of people putting-in legal time & effort at an old gun site to clean & in this case pretty much restore it is the VIPs that operate Battery Chamberlin on the grounds of Ft Scott. They all started a people just like you that were curious about the old site, but instead of just breaking or squeezing-in, they formed a legitimate, dedicated group that under the eye of NPS historians plus doing their own research,cleaned & restored the place.

The SF-88 Nike Missile Museum at Fort Barry is another example, though in this case, the Army pretty much left it intact & turned it over to NPS. Still, it's just ONE paid NPS supervisor, and then lots of VIP docents to maintain & operate it.

Sure, it's fun to UE, but I assure you, if you have the opportunity (& if you live in the Bay Area, you do...) it's more fun to be personally involved in cleaning-up of a site so that it can be open for tours, thanks directly to you & others.



/-/ooligan