Mason Street Veterans Promenade and Presidio Gate: The Coastal Entry

Why is it significant?

Cross the historic western threshold of Marina Boulevard and enter the wide coastal promenade of Mason Street, entering the federal lands of the Presidio.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Cross the historic western threshold of Marina Boulevard and enter the wide coastal promenade of Mason Street, entering the federal lands of the Presidio. This multi-use pathway is part of the San Francisco Bay Trail, a planned five-hundred-mile shoreline recreation network encircling the entire estuary. As you leave the dense residential street grid of the Marina behind, the landscape opens dramatically into wide coastal wetlands, salt marshes, and historic military aviation fields stretching toward the Golden Gate.

Look out toward the water to see windsurfers and foil-boarders skimming across the choppy green waves at breathtaking speeds, propelled by the relentless afternoon winds that whistle through the Golden Gate strait. The coastal promenade provides an unimpeded vista of Marin County's rolling headlands, Angel Island, and the red suspension towers of the Golden Gate Bridge growing steadily larger as you walk westward.

The land immediately south of Mason Street was historically an open military cantonment. During World War I and World War II, thousands of military trucks, armored ambulances, and supply trains rumbled along these tracks. Today, the Presidio Trust has revitalized the corridor with native dune plants, recycled timber benches, and interpretive historical trail markers. Taking time to absorb this physical setting connects you directly with the generations of master builders, military strategists, and visionary civic leaders whose perseverance shaped San Francisco into a global capital of maritime beauty and architectural distinction. Taking time to absorb this physical setting connects you directly with the generations of master builders, military strategists, and visionary civic leaders whose perseverance shaped San Francisco into a global capital of maritime beauty and architectural distinction.

In the spring and autumn, keep your eyes trained on the skies; this coastal corridor is a vital stopover on the Pacific Flyway, where thousands of migrating sandpipers, pelicans, and terns rest along the bay.

Continue west along Mason Street until you reach the wooden observation platform overlooking the Crissy Field marsh.