This was a day in our trip I’ve been looking forward to, visiting St Louis, and it didn’t disappoint. In particular, the Gateway Arch has always been fascinating to me. I remember visiting it as a kid and again later as a young adult. It’s such a simple form and so elegant.
What I’d forgotten from those previous visits was just how large it really is. Standing at its base and looking up at it is truly awe-inspiring. It was so fun to share this experience with my family like my parents had done for us many years ago.
If you ever have a chance to visit St Louis I strongly recommend you not only see the Gateway Arch but take the time to go and stand at its base. Give yourself the time to visit the exhibits below the arch. Most e
specially do NOT miss the 30-minute film which recounts the story of the arch’s construction in the early ’60s. It’s almost mind-blowing to see how men built this memorial working hundreds of feet above ground without safety gear and without a single fatality throughout.
To go up into the arch you’re required to get a ticket, available in the Old Courthouse on fourth street. Pictured above is a view inside the Old Courthouse looking straight up into the rotunda. It provides a spectacular sight of its own with the ornate artistry and decorations still in place from the recent Memorial Day weekend. St Louis offered up one treat after another!
Next up was a visit to the City Museum. This place is hard to do justice to in words and even photos. My best attempt to describe it would be to say it’s a huge playground for kids of all ages. It’s a ten-story industrial feeling building which has been renovated into an incredible labyrinth of climbing mazes, slides, caves, moving things and visual curiosities. They proudly profess that they have no maps so you can get lost.
We all had a great time at the City Museum with Collin proclaiming, “This is the greatest museum EVER!” It’s really quite incredible and engaging. Something that has to be experienced to be appreciated. There’s a bus hanging off the building roof, two authentic airplane fuselages, a 10 story slide, and a three-story high caged ceiling you can climb up into and exit out the top center. You can climb up into all of those things.
St Louis really offered up a great day for us and one the boys won’t soon forget!
When we visited the arch, I recall a story that the final piece of the arch (middle, top) could not be put in place because it was a hot day, and each end section had grown too long due to the coefficient of thermal expansion of the metal. I think they used fire hoses to cool the sides down, and that did the trick! The ends shrank, and they installed the final piece.
Another memorable experience was driving on a nearby turn-of-the-20th century cobblestone street in an area just to the northwest of the arch. It was the roughest, waviest 5 blocks or so of authentic cobblestone paving I had ever seen. There’s no way you could go over 10 MPH on those roads. It was like going back in time.