Completed in 1914 during one of his visits to California, the piece depicts the Golden Gate Strait, a narrow passage connecting the San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean, as seen near Sausalito.

After finishing the installation of the mural at the Palace of Fine Arts, Hassam traveled around Northern California, from Sonoma to Point Lobos, painting along the way with fellow artists.

From the vantage point of Sausalito, an ethereal fog is seen, a silver veil gracefully enveloping the hills above the San Francisco Bay,[1] merging with the landscape and creating a harmonious symphony of cool tones in the upper right.

[9] In January 1913, architect Henry Bacon (1866–1924), who engineered and designed the Lincoln Memorial, helped Hassam receive a commission to paint a mural for the upcoming Panama–Pacific International Exposition (PPIE) in San Francisco.

In San Francisco, he was joined by other artists, including Edward Simmons (1852–1931), Robert Reid (1862–1929), William de Leftwich Dodge (1867–1935), and Arthur Frank Mathews (1860–1945), who also contributed murals to the Exposition.

Art critic "A. v. C." made note of the filtered sunlight effects common to Impressionism and remarked that the painting of The Silver Veil and the Golden Gate was reminiscent of J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851).

[13] Art historian Susan Landauer believes Hassam's painting influenced California Impressionist Granville Redmond (1871–1935), particularly in his work Silver and Gold (1918).

[1] Curator Nancy Boas and art historian Marc Simpson consider The Silver Veil and the Golden Gate one of Hassam's best works in the California series.

[15] In 2023, Valparaiso University, facing financial pressures amidst declining enrollment and a deficit, announced plans to sell The Silver Veil and the Golden Gate and two other paintings in their collection to help fund dormitory renovations to attract new students.