To Bierstadt, communicating the metaphor of the monumentality of the American West was more important than making the painting geographically accurate. As a result, many features of the painting were modified from the real landscape, such as the exaggerated height Mount Hood and different landscape components that could not all be viewed at the same time in a single place along the Columbia River Gorge. An example of this is that the view of the mountain face seen in the picture is as it would be seen from Portland, but the landscape is painted as if the viewer was looking from Multnomah Falls and the northern shore of the Columbia River.