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Fort Barry was named in honor of Brig. Gen. William Farquar Barry, A U.S. Army artillery officer who distingusihed himself during the capture of Atlanta during the Civil War.
Fort Barry is a 1908 army post that protected San Francisco with a line of gun batteries perched at the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Fort Barry is one of three historic miitary outposts located in the Marin Headlands. Fort Barry, Fort Cronkhite and Fort Baker were all constructed at different times and the army managed each post separately. During wartime, all three posts fell under the jurisdiction of the Harbor Defenses of San Francisco.
In the late 1880's, Secretary of War William Endicott made recommendations to modernize all seacost forts. After the Spanish-American War in 1898 was over, the army began upgrading the seacost fortifications in the Marin Headlands north of the Golden Gate. Between 1901 and 1905, the army constructed five powerful batteries at Fort Barry that represented the Endicott upgrades. Those were Battery Mendell, Battery Alexander, Battery Smith Guthrie, Battery Samuel Rathbone and Battery Patrick Or'Rorke.
Fort Barry, along with Fort Cronkhite and Fort Baker, are now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
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