The cemetery occupies a commanding position within the Presidio of San Francisco, the former military installation that guarded the entrance to San Francisco Bay from the Spanish colonial period through the end of the Cold War. The Presidio itself dates to 1776, making it one of the oldest continuously used military sites in the country. When the Army established the national cemetery in 1884, it chose land that had already been serving as a burial ground for soldiers stationed at the post. The earliest interments include veterans of the Civil War, the Indian Wars, and the Spanish-American War -- conflicts that seem distant from the Pacific coast but left their dead here nonetheless.

Unlike many national cemeteries, which sit on flat ground in landlocked locations, San Francisco National Cemetery offers views that would be extraordinary in any context. The Golden Gate Bridge is visible from many sections, as are the Marin Headlands and the waters of the bay. Monterey cypress and eucalyptus trees provide windbreaks and shade. The juxtaposition of military regimentation -- the identical white headstones, the precise spacing, the alphabetical order within sections -- against the wild geography of the Presidio's coastal bluffs gives the cemetery a character unlike any other national burial ground. The setting suggests that the nation owes its veterans not just a grave but a beautiful one.

The cemetery was closed to new interments in 1973, though exceptions are made for spouses and dependents of those already buried there. It now holds over 30,000 graves spanning more than a century of American military service. The Presidio itself was transferred from the Army to the National Park Service in 1994, and the cemetery is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Visitors walking the Presidio's trails often encounter the cemetery unexpectedly -- a clearing in the trees reveals the ranks of white stones, and the transition from recreational parkland to hallowed ground is immediate and sobering. The dead are quiet company, but their presence reminds every hiker and jogger that the beauty of the Presidio was, for two centuries, inseparable from the business of war.