The Golden Gate is a

strait A strait is a water body connecting two seas or water basins. The surface water is, for the most part, at the same elevation on both sides and flows through the strait in both directions, even though the topography generally constricts the ...

on the west coast of North America that connects

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. It is defined by the headlands of the

San Francisco Peninsula The San Francisco Peninsula is a peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area that separates San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. On its northern tip is the City and County of San Francisco. Its southern base is Los Altos and Mountain View, ...

and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by the

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean in California, United States. The structure links San Francisco—the northern tip of the San Francisco Peni ...

. The entire shoreline and adjacent waters throughout the strait are managed by the

Golden Gate National Recreation Area The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is a U.S. National Recreation Area protecting of ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of the park is land formerly used by the Unite ...

Geology

During the last ice age, when sea level was several hundred feet lower, the waters of the glacier-fed

Sacramento River The Sacramento River () is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento–San Joaquin River D ...

and the

San Joaquin River The San Joaquin River ( ; ) is the longest river of Central California. The long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suisun Bay, San Francis ...

scoured a deep channel through the bedrock on their way to the ocean. (A similar process created the undersea Hudson Canyon off the coast of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

and

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

.) The strait is well known today for its depth and powerful tidal currents from the Pacific Ocean. Many small

whirlpools A whirlpool is a body of rotating water produced by opposing currents or a current running into an obstacle. Small whirlpools form when a bath or a sink is draining. More powerful ones formed in seas or oceans may be called maelstroms ( ). ''Vo ...

and eddies can form in its waters. With its strong currents, rocky

reefs A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition of sand or wave eros ...

and

fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus and is heavily influenc ...

, the Golden Gate is the site of over 100 shipwrecks.

Climate

Satellite view of fog over the Golden Gate

The Golden Gate is often shrouded in coastal fog, especially during the summer. Heat generated in the

California Central Valley The Central Valley is a broad, elongated, flat valley that dominates the interior of California, United States. It is wide and runs approximately from north-northwest to south-southeast, inland from and parallel to the Pacific coast. It cover ...

causes air there to rise, creating a low pressure area that pulls in cool, moist air from over the Pacific Ocean. The Golden Gate forms the largest break in the hills of the

California Coast Range The Coast Ranges of California span from Del Norte or Humboldt County, California, south to Santa Barbara County. The other three coastal California mountain ranges are the Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges and the Klamath Mountains. Ph ...

, allowing a persistent, dense stream of fog to enter the bay there. Although there is no weather station on Golden Gate proper, the area has a

mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

''Csb'') with very narrow temperature fluctuations, cool summers and mild winters. For the nearest weather station see the weatherbox of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. The Golden Gate Bridge being nearer the ocean and at elevation indicate it being cooler during summer days. Nearer the San Francisco urban core, the temperatures resemble the official

NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, charting the seas, conducting deep-sea exploratio ...

weather station instead.

History

Before Europeans arrived in the 18th century, the area around the strait and the bay was inhabited by Native Americans the

Ohlone The Ohlone ( ), formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the l ...

people to the south and

Coast Miwok The Coast Miwok are an Indigenous people of California that were the second-largest tribe of the Miwok people. Coast Miwok inhabited the general area of present-day Marin County and southern Sonoma County in Northern California, from the Golde ...

to the north. Descendants of both tribes remain in the area. The opening to the strait was surprisingly elusive for early European explorers, presumably due to persistent summer fog. The strait is not recorded in the voyages of

Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo (; 1497 – January 3, 1543) was a Portuguese maritime explorer best known for investigations of the west coast of North America, undertaken on behalf of the Spanish Empire. He was the first European to explore presen ...

nor

Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake ( 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English Exploration, explorer and privateer best known for making the Francis Drake's circumnavigation, second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580 (bein ...

, both of whom may have explored the nearby coast in the 16th century in search of the fabled

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...

. The strait is also unrecorded in observations by

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

galleon Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships developed in Spain and Portugal. They were first used as armed cargo carriers by Europe, Europeans from the 16th to 18th centuries during the Age of Sail, and they were the principal vessels dr ...

s on the Manila-Acapulco run from the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

that laid up in nearby

Drakes Bay Drakes Bay ( Coast Miwok: ''Tamál-Húye'') is a bay along the Point Reyes National Seashore on the coast of northern California in the United States, approximately northwest of San Francisco at approximately 38 degrees north latitude. The ...

to the north. These rarely passed east of the

Farallon Islands The Farallon Islands ( ), or Farallones (), are a group of islands and sea stacks in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The islands are also sometimes referred to by mariners as the Devil's ...

( west of the Golden Gate), for fear of the possibility of rocks between the islands and the mainland. The first recorded observation of the strait occurred nearly two hundred years later than the earliest European explorations of the coast. In 1769, Sgt José Francisco Ortega, the leader of a scouting party sent north along the

by Don

Gaspar de Portolá Captain Gaspar de Portolá y Rovira (January 1, 1716 – October 10, 1786) was a Spanish Army officer and colonial administrator who served as the first List of governors of California before 1850, governor of the Californias from 1767 to 1770 ...

from their expedition encampment in San Pedro Valley to locate the

Point Reyes Point Reyes ( , meaning 'Cape of the Kings') is a prominent landform and popular tourist destination on the Pacific coast of Marin County in Northern California. It is approximately west-northwest of San Francisco. The term is often applied ...

headlands, reported back to Portolá that he could not reach the location because of the existence of the strait. On August 5, 1775 Juan de Ayala and the crew of his ship ''San Carlos'' became the first Europeans known to have passed through the strait, anchoring in a cove behind Angel Island, the cove now named in Ayala's honor. Until the 1840s, the strait was called the "Boca del Puerto de San Francisco" ("Mouth of the Port of San Francisco"). On July 1, 1846, before the discovery of

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, the entrance acquired a new name. In his memoirs, John C. Frémont wrote: "To this Gate I gave the name of 'Chrysopylae', or 'Golden Gate'; for the same reasons that the harbor of

Byzantium Byzantium () or Byzantion () was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' continued to be used as a n ...

was called Chrysoceras, or

Golden Horn The Golden Horn ( or ) is a major urban waterway and the primary inlet of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey. As a natural estuary that connects with the Bosphorus Strait at the point where the strait meets the Sea of Marmara, the waters of the ...

." He went on to comment that the strait was "a golden gate to trade with the Orient".

Gallery

File:Golden Gate from Lands End, San Francisco c1895.jpg, The Golden Gate as seen from off "Land's End" in Lincoln Park on the Northwest tip of the San Francisco Peninsula 1895 File:San Francisco Golden Gate.jpg, San Francisco Bay and Golden Gate File:Passing Through the Golden Gate, by William A. Coulter.jpg, Passing Through the Golden Gate, by William A. Coulter File:Golden Gate, San Francisco, Calif (NYPL b12647398-66475).tiff, Postcard of the Golden Gate, 1898–1904

1920s

The U.S. Post Office issued a

postage stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...

on May 1, 1923, celebrating ''The Golden Gate'', portraying the schooner USS ''Babcock'' passing through an empty strait. The ''Babcock'' served in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1919, with San Francisco as its port of call.

Golden Gate Bridge

In 1933 construction began on the

, a

suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck (bridge), deck is hung below suspension wire rope, cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridg ...

connecting the city of

on the northern tip of the

Marin County Marin County ( ) is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is ac ...

. Today it is part of both US Highway 101 and California Route 1. The bridge was the longest suspension bridge span in the world when completed in 1937 and is an internationally recognized symbol of San Francisco and the state of

. Since its completion the span has been surpassed by eighteen other bridges and remains second longest in the United States, after the

Verrazano-Narrows Bridge The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge ( ; also referred to as the Narrows Bridge, the Verrazzano Bridge, and simply the Verrazzano) is a suspension bridge connecting the boroughs of Staten Island and Brooklyn in New York City, United States. It span ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. In 2007, it was ranked fifth on the '' List of America's Favorite Architecture'' by the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach progr ...

Navigation

The Golden Gate strait serves as the primary access channel for navigation to and from the San Francisco Bay, one of the largest cargo ports in the United States. Commercial ports includes the

Port of Oakland The Port of Oakland is the port authority for the city of Oakland, California, United States. Its primary responsibilities are the operation of the Oakland Seaport and the Oakland International Airport. It also operates a commercial real est ...

, the

Port of Richmond The Port of Richmond, also known as the Richmond Deepwater Terminal and the Richmond Marine Terminal, is located on the James River in Richmond, Virginia, United States, inland from Cape Henry and approximately northwest of Newport News, Virg ...

, and the Port of San Francisco. Commercial cargo ships use the Golden Gate to access the San Francisco Bay, as well as barges, tankers, fishing boats, cruise ships, and privately owned boats, including wind-surfers and kite-boards. About 9000 ships moved through the Golden Gate in 2014, and a similar amount in 2015. The U.S Coast Guard maintains a

Vessel Traffic Service A vessel traffic service is a marine traffic monitoring system established by harbour or port authorities, similar to air traffic control for aircraft. The International Maritime Organization defines vessel traffic service as "a service implemente ...

to monitor and regulate vessel traffic through the Golden Gate. For navigational guidance, there are white and green lights on the center of the span of the Golden Gate Bridge. Lighthouses with beacons and foghorns provide alerts at Point Bonita, Point Diablo, Lime Point and Mile Rocks. Before the Golden Gate Bridge was built, a lighthouse protected the south side of the strait at Fort Point. Buoys and radar reflectors provide additional navigational aid at various locations throughout the strait.

References

External links

National Park Service: Discovery of the Golden Gate

Golden Gate 360 Image (QTVR)

Golden Gate 360 Image (Java)

* ttps://vimeo.com/69445362 Adrift time-lapse video by Simon Christen of fog pouring over the Marin Headlands and through the Golden Gate {{Authority control Bodies of water of Marin County, California Bodies of water of San Francisco Straits of California San Francisco Bay