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Battery Townsley at Fort Cronkhite, Marin Headlands
In October of last year Battery Townsley (top photo), an underground fort was refurbished and opened to the public. The World War II battery was built in 1940 to house two 16-inch guns that could fire a one-ton shell a distance of 25 miles. Battery Townsley was part of a harbor defense system included underwater minefields, anti-aircraft positions, and a number of other big gun batteries. The 'eyes' of the battery were a series of tiny observation bunkers (bottom photo) placed on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific. During World War II, over one hundred soldiers lived in the battery around the clock and were trained to be ready for action within 5-minutes.

Due to high security, civilians living in San Francisco knew that there were batteries nearby but their exact locations were not revealed. In fact Battery Townsley was kept such a secret that the descendants of the man who it was named after didn't even know about it until decades after the war ended. In the 1950s, the guns were scrapped and the battery was turned into for living quarters for soldiers. During the Cold War it was used as an underground testing facility.

Battery Townsley is now managed by the U.S. Parks Service and is open to the public every second Sunday of the month, from 12 noon to 4 PM.
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