The very first swimmers along this this long stretch of beach along the San Francisco peninsula were no doubt skinny dippers. In 1776, the year the American colonies rebelled against England, the Spanish colonizers built a military fort, the Presidio, on the grassy hills at the narrows of the bay, known as the Golden Gate. In 1904, the bluff above the beach was fortified with gun installations known as Battery Chamberlin, which can still be viewed today.
From 1986 to 1990, the north end of Baker Beach was the original site of the Burning Man art festival. In 1990, park police allowed participants to raise the traditional large statue but not to set it on fire, since the beach enforces a limit on the size of any campfires. (Burning Man, of course, is now held annually in Black Rock Desert, Nevada.)
When the Presidio was decommissioned as a U.S. Army base in 1997, it became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, administered by the National Park Service.
The northern section of Baker Beach is considered a clothing-optional by locals, and the Park Service has allowed the historic precedent to continue. Let's hope it stays that way for future generations to enjoy.
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