From the
US Coast Guard website:
The history of Station Golden Gate begins in 1877 before the establishment of the U.S. Life Saving Service, an agency later absorbed into the U.S. Coast Guard. On June 20, 1877 the Secretary of Treasury, realizing the need for resources like those of the Massachusetts Humane Society on the East Coast, constructed a life saving station at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.
Following the creation of the U.S. Life Saving Service the Golden Gate Park station became the first of five in the agency's West Coast or Twelfth District. Supplemental stations were later established at the Presidio's Fort Point, Point Reyes, Point Bonita in the Marin Headlands, and Southside at the southen end of Ocean Beach in San Francisco.
In 1914 the Life Saving Service merged with the Revenue-Cutter Service and the new organization became the United States Coast Guard, resulting in the renaming of the station at the Presidio as Fort Point Coast Guard Station No 323. With the introduction of the motor lifeboat and the gradual phasing out of oar-powered lifeboats, the stations at Golden Gate Park, Point Bonita, and Ocean Beach were closed and consolidated into Station Fort Point, leaving it the only operating facility in the Bay Area.
For almost one hundred years Station 323 protected those who traveled on the seas; rescuing them from danger, and protecting the port from crime and attack. A need for expansion brought the U.S. Army, National Park Service, and U.S. Coast Guard to negotiations in June 1987 and a decision was reached to move the station to East Fort Baker in Marin County. In 1990 Station Fort Point was decomissioned and its lifeboats and crew moved across the Bay to a new location at Fort Baker in the Marin Headlands.
The station is one of several Bay Area units responsible for offshore or open ocean response, with an area of responsibility covering fifty nautical miles offshore from Point Reyes to Point Ano Nuevo, including the Farallon Islands and within San Francisco Bay from Bluff Point in Marin County to Pier 39 on the San Francisco waterfront.
The Coast Guard Station Golden Gate operates and maintains four state of the art boats, two 47’ Motor Lifeboats (MLB’s) and two 25’ Response Boats (RB-S’s). The unit has an exceptionally large area of responsibility which extends offshore 50 nautical miles from Point Reyes to Point Ano Nuevo including the Farallon islands and inside the bay from Bluff Point to Pier 39 at the San Francisco waterfront. The ready crew is made up of two fully qualified sections that stand duty opposite each other on a “port and starboard” duty rotation. That is each section stands two days on, two days off, three days on, two days off. Support personnel and the command cadre work Monday through Friday and stand duty as needed. Regardless of its high operation tempo US Coast Guard Station Golden Gate operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and never closes.
Since September 11, 2001, the Coast Guard has assumed a dynamic role in protecting the District’s major ports, which include six Tier one ports: San Diego, Los Angeles, Long Beach, and San Francisco, Oakland, and Richmond. The Coast Guard’s presence in the District continues to expand, as more people, new equipment, and state of the art technology are employed to meet the needs of the United States as it enters the 21st century.