Gulf Stream Gulf Stream The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension the North Atlantic Drift, is a warm and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and stretches to the tip of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The process of western intensification causes the Gulf Stream to be a northward accelerating current off the east coast of North America. At about , it splits in two, with the northern stream, the North Atlantic Drift, crossing to Northern Europe and the southern stream, the Canary Current,
History of the west coast of North America all adjoining land and islands. This act gave Spain exclusive sovereignty and navigation rights over the entire west coast of North America. The commonly held belief at the time was that the west coast of North America was in modest sailing distance of Asia to the west, or the two might actually physically connect. To the north was imagined a narrow Northwest Passage, known as the Strait of Anián, which some believed reached the Pacific Ocean at 42° north latitude (the latitude of today's border between Oregon and California) and connected to the Atlantic Ocean at the Gulf of St.