St. Louis Gateway Arch - St. Louis, MO Reviews

America's tallest national monument.  But, how did it all begin?  From About.com, "In 1935, the federal government selected the St. Louis riverfront as the site for a new national monument honoring the pioneers who explored the American West."

1935!  Just goes to show how slowly our government works.  It wasn't until 1947 the government began looking for an architect.  The winning architect (Eero Saarinen) sadly never saw his design completed.  He died of a brain tumor in 1961 at the age of 51, and is buried in Michigan.  The Arch wasn't completed until October 28, 1965.

I remember as...

To the Point

We went to St. Louis, Missouri to see The Arch. I had no idea what this was. When I told friends we were going to St. Louis they said “Oh you’ll see the arch.” What a great stop this was!

A Closer View

We got tickets the day before which I highly recommend you do or you may be shut out. There are a number of combinations. For example you can go to the top and see one or two documentaries; you can just see the documentaries; you can just go to the top. We chose the latter.

We had tickets for the 11:00 tram. There was heavy security to get into the underground area...

When you drive into St. Louis the Gateway Arch is one of the first things that you see. Even from far away it looks huge and just is an amaazing sight!
When you finally make it to your destination and you can see it a little closer you are still blown away. Parking was a little hard to find which means that you had to walk a little ways, but if you really want to see this then you will go through the trouble.Once you find parking and you walk up to the Arch it takes your breath away. You relize that it is big,but don't relize how much so until you are right upon it. You have to look straight...

I live in St. Louis, and love to take visitors up in the arch. Regardless of how many times I go up, it is always special.

The arch defines both St. Louis and the drive for westward expansion. There is a museum in the basement which is nice. However, the experience of visiting the arch is only truly experienced when it is seen in combination with the movie that explains how the arch was built.

The movie is fantastic and gives both kids and adults an idea of how hard it was to construct. Seeing the movie transforms the arch from a great view into a history lesson in construction and architecture....