U.S. Army Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs had authority over Arlington National Cemetery after the American Civil War. At that time, the eastern boundary of the cemetery lay where Eisenhower Drive is located today. In 1871, Meigs ordered the a main ceremonial gate to Arlington be constructed just east of what is now the intersection of McClellan Avenue and Eisenhower Drive. Built of red sandstone and red brick, Meigs named it the McClellan gate after Major General George B. McClellan, who organized the Army of the Potomac and served from November 1861 to March 1862 as the general-in-chief of the Union Army. Meigs ordered the name "MCCLELLAN" inscribed into the gate's east=facing rectangular pediment in gilt letters. In the left main column of the gate's west face, Meigs had his own name inscribed as a tribute to himself.

In 1900, the federal government transferred 400 acres of Arlington National Cemetery which lay between McClellan Gate and the Potomac River to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which used it as an experimental farm. In 1932, Memorial Drive and the Hemicycle (now the Women in Military Service to America Memorial) were built as a new ceremonial entrance to the cemetery. The 400 acres were returned to Arlington National Cemetery just before World War II, which required the abandonment of the McClellan Gate as Arlington's main gate.