Golden Gate Canyon is in the northwestern region of Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...

 in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Wyoming

Wyoming

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

. Glen Creek flows north through the canyon enroute to the Gardner River

Gardner River

The Gardner River is a tributary of the Yellowstone River, approximately long, in northwestern Wyoming and south central Montana in the United States. The entire river is located within Yellowstone National Park...

 descending from 7400 feet (2,255.5 m) at Kingman Pass

Kingman Pass

Kingman Pass el. is a mountain pass between Terrance Mountain and Bunsen Peak on the Grand Loop Road , just south of Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. The pass is named for Lieutenant Dan Christie Kingman of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Kingman rebuilt this difficult portion...

 to just under 6000 feet (1,828.8 m) in less than 3 miles (4.8 km). The northern portion of the Grand Loop Road traverses the canyon, connecting Mammoth Hot Springs

Mammoth Hot Springs

Mammoth Hot Springs is a large complex of hot springs on a hill of travertine in Yellowstone National Park adjacent to Fort Yellowstone and the Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District. It was created over thousands of years as hot water from the spring cooled and deposited calcium carbonate...

 with park features to the south.

A road was first built through the Golden Gate in 1884-85, replacing a steep, difficult road over Snow Pass. The construction was directed by U.S. Army Lieutenant Dan Christie Kingman

Dan Christie Kingman

Dan Christie Kingman was born in Dover, New Hampshire. He graduated second in the United States Military Academy class of 1875 and was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers. He served as an instructor at the Military Academy and as the engineer officer of the Army's Department of the Platte...

. The work included a wooden trestle where a cliff face precluded grading. In 1900 the viaduct was rebuilt as a concrete structure under the supervision of Captain Hiram M. Chittenden

Hiram M. Chittenden

Hiram Martin Chittenden was the Seattle district engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers for whom the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks in Seattle, Washington, were named.-Early Life:...

. Chittenden's viaduct was replaced in turn in 1930-34, the outcome of a program to widen the road. The widened viaduct was itself replaced in 1977.