The best time ever to visit the St. Louis Arch is on New Year’s Eve at 9:30 a.m. Nobody’s there. No lines. No crowds. It was great.
The Gateway Arch
I had no idea the Arch was conceived in the late 50’s then designed and built in the early 60’s. I’m not sure when I thought it was done, but I really thought it was older than that. I mean, heck, if it’s supposed to symbolize the gateway to the West, wasn’t the West won much earlier than 1962?
Regardless, this thing is impressive and beautiful. It’s slightly over 600 feet tall and 600 feet wide (630 feet, maybe?). It is an engineering marvel of its time. The tolerances for the structure are incredibly small, which is mind-boggling considering that the engineers didn’t use computers to design it.
Eero Saarinen designed the structure. He also designed Washington, D.C.’s Dulles airport (the cool, swoopy one) and that is evident in some of the details in the Arch’s visitor center.
To get to the top, you climb into these egg-shaped pods (“Mork calling Ork, come in Ork…”) for a quick, 3-minute ride to the top. The ride is alot like a Ferris Wheel, except the small window out of the pod looks onto very boring internal structural components like steel beams, staircases, and wiring.
Once at the top, you can look out tiny windows towards downtown St. Louis or at the Mississippi river. Both views are really cool.
Overall, the Arch is really impressive and a very cool thing to see.
The Old Courthouse
An unexpected bonus was the Old Courthouse across the street from the Arch. This courthouse was the location of the 1856 Dred Scott case, where Dred—a slave—sued unsuccessfully for his freedom. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately heard the case, which is always discussed on U.S. Capitol tours. I had no idea the origins of the case, though.
Road Tripping Onward…
Stay tuned for more entries as we move on from St. Louis to Columbus, Ohio and ultimately home to D.C.!