The San Francisco Presidio is a national park of 1,480 acres located at the southern entrance of the Golden Gate Bridge. The Presidio has lived many lives as a military base for the Spanish, Mexicans and then the United States. In 1884, 9 acres within the Presidio were designated as the San Francisco National Cemetery. It was the first national cemetery established on the West Coast. It is now the final resting place of over 30,000 service members. On Veterans Day 2009, the Presidio cemetery overlook was completed and now serves as a sacred location for honoring the lives of the fallen soldiers from 200 years of war.
The trail leading down to the overlook winds its way through a forest of towering eucalyptus trees and emerges onto a peaceful plaza where you can sit down on a bench and spend a quiet moment viewing the green, rolling hills dotted with white headstones. Further beyond the cemetery, you’ll see the Golden Gate Bridge, Marin Headlands, and San Francisco Bay glistening in the distance.
Surrounding the benches are low stone walls inscribed with lines from The Young Dead Soldiers by American poet and World War I artillery officer Archibald MacLeish. It is a somber poem that pulls the heart with these lines:
“They say: We were young. We have died. Remember us.”
While the Presidio is a joyful park full of music, dancing, food, and playing children, none of the joy excludes the fact that beneath our freedom are hundreds of years of sacrifice. We remember.
