The Golden Gate
Before the Bridge

Selections from the postcard collection of Joel GAzis-SAx

It was the fabled door to a new Empire. Known on early Spanish maps only as the entrance to the port of San Francisco, it received its name in 1846, two years before James Marshall spotted bits of amber metal in the American River. Captain John C. Fremont may have felt a premonition when he beheld the deep water channel between the yellow hillsides. He called this strait "The Golden Gate" because in his travels through Mexican territory, he had seen much promise in the new American lands. Even before the brilliant orange-red bridge spanned the waters, travellers from around the Cape Horn or across the Pacific recognized them as the end of a long journey and the beginning of a new life.