We visited St. Louis, MO to visit the Gateway Arch. \u00a0It is the tallest man-made monument in the U.S., taller than the Washington Monument. \u00a0It is a beautiful and simple design arch, very visible from miles around and as the skin is stainless steel, very shiny and pretty. \u00a0We rode to the top (and back down) in a small ‘capsule’ about 5 feet in diameter and round. \u00a0Five people can fit inside but it’s quite cramped \u00a0if you get five adults in there! \u00a0It’s designed to stay upright as it rides first vertically and then slants more horizontal as it gets to the top.<\/p>\n
The view from the top is breathtaking! \u00a0The viewing area up top is quite small and has small windows to see out of that are angled oddly because of the shape of the arch. \u00a0The walls below the window are carpeted and designed so you can lean\/rest your body against them in order to see out the windows. \u00a0But, it was definitely worth it!<\/p>\n
The arch was built in the 1960s and was designed by a famous architect,\u00a0Eero Saarinen. \u00a0He wanted it to be very simplistic in design rather than ‘fancy’. \u00a0But, that simple design made it very complicated to build. \u00a0They show a movie at the visitor center that explains the process of building each triangular section and how they mounted them. \u00a0The arch took over 3 years to built and while the estimate was that 13 men would lose their lives during construction, no one did! \u00a0The footage during the movie of the men at the top of the arch, walking along, hanging by one rope while guiding huge pieces of metal etc. was scary – no one had a safety harness on!<\/p>\n
The arch at the top is 630 feet high. \u00a0There are some skyscrapers in the city that are reaching that height, but as the arch is right along the river at the edge of the city, it still stands out.<\/p>\n
Here are some pictures we took:<\/p>\n\n