It has been on my bucket list, and I am super thankful my husband took me all the way to St. Louis (read more HERE)
to tick it off my list:
Visiting the Gateway Arch!
The Gateway Arch is a 630-foot (192 m) tall monument in St. Louis, in the U.S. state of Missouri. Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a flattened catenary arch, it is the tallest man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere, Missouri's tallest accessible building, and the world's tallest arch. Built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States, it is the centerpiece of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and has become an internationally famous symbol of St. Louis.
The arch sits at the site of St. Louis' founding on the west bank of the Mississippi River.
The Gateway Arch was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen and German-American structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel in 1947.
Construction began on February 12, 1963, and was completed on October 28, 1965, at a total cost of US$13 million ($97,300,000 in 2014). The monument opened to the public on June 10, 1967.
via wikipedia.org
We even paid the $10 each to ride the capsule to the top of the Arch. It was a super foggy day, but the view was awesome anyway! If you ever visit St. Louis, I really tell you to invest the money to do the ride! I was a wee bit claustrophobic and sick during and after the ride up the Arch, but it was totally worth it.
...you can tell I wasn't feeling THAT comfortable 630 feet up in the air. After a 4 minute ride in a tiny capsule. |
There is a tour every few minutes, so the waiting time shouldn't be that long. I think it took us about 20-30 minutes from the minute we've bought the tickets to the second we stepped out of the capsules. You can stay on top of the Arch as long as you want to, but since there is not that much space up there, they might kick you out after a certain amount of time...
We've stayed up there for about 15 minutes, and took a ride back down. I've had a wonderful time!
Anni, I am from the St. Louis area and never had the desire to go up in the Arch. All my family has been up there but, when they told me you could actually feel it sway I was out - I don't like heights or close spaces either. But the Arch is one awesome place to visit. So glad you enjoyed it. Cathy
ReplyDeleteI use to have a job with a dedicated run, back and forth to St Louis every day. I drove past the arch twice a day for almost 4 months, yet never got any closer to it than the interstate. It is on my bucket list too. Someday...
ReplyDeleteGreat pic. I want to visit it.
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