<P> 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 San Francisco Peninsula by Don Gaspar de Portolá from their expedition encampment in San Pedro Valley to locate the Point Reyes headlands , reported back to Portolá that he could not reach the location because of his encounter with the strait . On 5 August 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 1 July 1846 , before the discovery of gold in California , 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 was called Chrysoceras , or Golden Horn . '' </P>
<P> 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 San Francisco Peninsula by Don Gaspar de Portolá from their expedition encampment in San Pedro Valley to locate the Point Reyes headlands , reported back to Portolá that he could not reach the location because of his encounter with the strait . On 5 August 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 1 July 1846 , before the discovery of gold in California , 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 was called Chrysoceras , or Golden Horn . '' </P>
where did the name golden gate bridge come from
where did the name golden gate bridge come from
discovery of gold in California
discovery of gold in California