Posts Tagged ‘golden gate’

Why is the Golden Gate Bridge Orange?

Gate at DuskGate at Dusk

Good question. Seems like they should either paint the bridge gold, or call it the Orange Gate Bridge.

But maybe not.

As it turns out, the “Golden Gate” refers to the straight of water between San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean.

So the bridge spanning this straight would logically be called the Golden Gate Bridge.

Okay, well why is the straight called the Golden Gate?

One story purports that explorer John C. Frémont wrote in his memoirs, “To this Gate I gave the name of “Chrysopylae”, or “Golden Gate”; for the same reasons that the harbor of Byzantium was called Chrysoceras, or Golden Horn.”

If you ask me that is lame.

Some people say that it is called the Golden Gate because of the San Francisco gold rush, however, the straight was called the Golden Gate before the gold rush took place, so that story doesn’t work either.

I like to think it is called the Golden Gate Bridge because the bridge forms a gateway to beautiful golden sunsets.

I took this shot on a recent trip; I like the silhouette of the bridge and hills with the sunset backdrop.

Don’t be shy, please leave your comments!

Not sure what to comment? No problem! Just answer one or all of the below questions!

Do you like this photo? Have you been to the Golden Gate bridge? Do you know what park I took this shot from?