| Golden Gate | |
|---|---|
| Chrysopylae Boca del Puerto de San Francisco | |
 A map showing the location of the Golden Gate strait | |
  Golden Gate | |
 Perspective view looking southwest over the Golden Gate Bridge toward the Pacific Ocean. | |
| Location | Between San Francisco Peninsula and Marin Headlands |
| Coordinates | 37°49′N122°30′W / 37.81°N 122.50°W /37.81; -122.50 |
| Type | strait |
| Max. width | 3 miles (4.8 km) |
| Min. width | 1.1 miles (1.8 km) |
| Max. depth | 115 meters (377 ft)[1] |
| Settlements | San Francisco, CA |
TheGolden Gate is astrait on the west coast of North America that connectsSan Francisco Bay to thePacific Ocean.[2] It is defined by the headlands of theSan Francisco Peninsula and theMarin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by theGolden Gate Bridge. The entire shoreline and adjacent waters throughout the strait are managed by theGolden Gate National Recreation Area.[3]
During thelast ice age, when sea level was several hundred feet lower, the waters of the glacier-fedSacramento River and theSan Joaquin River scoured a deep channel through the bedrock on their way to the ocean. (A similar process created the underseaHudson Canyon off the coast ofNew York andNew Jersey.) The strait is well known today for its depth and powerful tidal currents from the Pacific Ocean. Many smallwhirlpools andeddies can form in its waters. With its strong currents, rockyreefs andfog, the Golden Gate is the site ofover 100 shipwrecks.[4]
The Golden Gate is often shrouded incoastal fog, especially during the summer. Heat generated in theCalifornia Central Valley 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 theCalifornia Coast Range, allowing a persistent, dense stream of fog to enter the bay there.[5] Although there is no weather station on Golden Gate proper, the area has amediterranean climate (KöppenCsb) with very narrow temperature fluctuations, cool summers and mild winters. For the nearest weather station see the weatherbox ofSan Francisco. 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 officialNOAA weather station instead.
Before Europeans arrived in the 18th century, the area around the strait and the bay was inhabited byNative Americans – theOhlone people to the south andCoast Miwok to the north. Descendants of both tribes remain in the area.[6][7]
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 ofJuan Rodríguez Cabrillo norFrancis Drake, both of whom may have explored the nearby coast in the 16th century in search of the fabledNorthwest Passage.[citation needed] The strait is also unrecorded in observations bySpanishgalleons on theManila-Acapulco run from thePhilippines that laid up in nearbyDrakes Bay to the north. These rarely passed east of theFarallon Islands (27 miles (43 km) west of the Golden Gate), for fear of the possibility of rocks between the islands and the mainland.[citation needed]
The first recorded observation of the strait occurred nearly two hundred years later than the earliest European explorations of the coast. In 1769, SgtJosé Francisco Ortega, the leader of a scouting party sent north along theSan Francisco Peninsula by DonGaspar de Portolá from their expedition encampment in San Pedro Valley to locate thePoint Reyes headlands, reported back to Portolá that he could not reach the location because of the existence of the strait.[8] On August 5, 1775Juan de Ayala and the crew of his shipSan Carlos became the first Europeans known to have passed through the strait, anchoring in a cove behindAngel 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 ofgold inCalifornia, 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 ofByzantium was called Chrysoceras, orGolden Horn."[9] He went on to comment that the strait was "a golden gate to trade with the Orient".[10]
The U.S. Post Office issued apostage stamp on May 1, 1923, celebratingThe Golden Gate, portraying the schoonerUSSBabcock passing through an empty strait. TheBabcock served in the United States Navy from 1917 to 1919, with San Francisco as its port of call.[11]
In 1933 construction began on theGolden Gate Bridge, asuspension bridge connecting the city ofSan Francisco on the northern tip of theSan Francisco Peninsula toMarin County. Today it is part of bothUS Highway 101 andCalifornia Route 1.
The Bridge was thelongest suspension bridge span in the world when completed in 1937 and is an internationally recognized symbol of San Francisco and the state ofCalifornia. Since its completion the span has been surpassed by eighteen other bridges and remains second longest in the United States, after theVerrazano-Narrows Bridge inNew York City. In 2007, it was ranked fifth on theList of America's Favorite Architecture by theAmerican Institute of Architects.
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 thePort of Oakland, thePort of Richmond, and thePort 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.[12] The U.S Coast Guard maintains aVessel Traffic Service to monitor and regulate vessel traffic through the Golden Gate.[13]
For navigational guidance, there are white and green lights on the center of the span of the Golden Gate Bridge.[14] Lighthouses with beacons andfoghorns provide alerts atPoint Bonita,Point Diablo,Lime Point andMile Rocks. Before the Golden Gate Bridge was built, a lighthouse protected the south side of the strait atFort Point. Buoys and radar reflectors provide additional navigational aid at various locations throughout the strait.[15]
The tidal and submerged lands within the two parks and marine sanctuary contain approximately 151 shipwrecks.
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