Congress authorized construction of the facility in 1937, with the first interments in 1941. The cemetery was officially dedicated on
Memorial Day, May 30, 1942.
California Attorney GeneralEarl Warren (later
Governor, then
Chief Justice of the United States) was keynote speaker at the ceremony. Golden Gate is one of a large number of
U.S. Army-planned cemeteries started in the 1930s and completed during the 1940s. They were designed specifically to provide abundant burial opportunities in locations around the nation in cities with very large veteran populations.
As of 2005, the cemetery held 137,435 interments. Over the years, several attempts to expand Golden Gate National Cemetery were met with resistance from local residents, so it has remained at its original 161.5 acres (0.654 km2) since 1941.
Several service members who are buried at the Golden Gate National Cemetery were interned in the stables at the nearby
Tanforan Racetrack during the early part of the
Japanese American internment.
Also notable is that the Golden Gate National Cemetery was the first cemetery to initiate the large flag display on Memorial Day. Flags are raised around the base of the hill in the center of the cemetery and small flags are placed on each grave site by various scout volunteers. This practice was created and put into effect by John T. Spelman, the superintendent of the cemetery at the time.
The American Veterans donated a Schulmerich
carillon to the cemetery as part of their worldwide living memorial carillon program. The carillon was dedicated May 30, 1958.
Notable burials
Medal of Honor Recipients
(Dates are of the actions for which they were awarded the
Medal of Honor.)
Dan White,
paratrooper in the Vietnam War and a former San Francisco County Supervisor; he assassinated San Francisco County Supervisor
Harvey Milk and San Francisco Mayor
George Moscone on November 27, 1978
The 44 German and Italian
prisoners-of-war interred here were captured in North Africa after the collapse of the German
Afrika Korps under the command of Fieldmarshal
Erwin Rommel in 1943. The POWs were housed at
Camp Beale and
Camp Cook in
California and
Camp Rupert in
Idaho, where they were originally buried at the respective post cemeteries. When the posts closed, the POWs were re-interred at Golden Gate.