14-May-2024 St. Louis

The Gateway Arch!

I really enjoyed learning all about the Gateway Arch today. One of the things that surprised me the most is that the arch is as tall as it is wide (630 feet for both dimensions). It sure looks a lot taller than wider to me! Each leg is an equilateral triangle with sides 54 feet long at ground level tapering to 17 feet at the top. The legs have double walls of steel 3 feet apart at ground level and just under 8 inches apart above the 400 foot level. Up to the 300 foot mark the space between the 2 walls is filled with reinforced concrete. But that still leaves a void in each leg large enough for a tram to bring visitors up to the top. There is a separate tram system in each of the legs of the arch. Each tram has 8 cars that can seat up to 5 individuals; although there were only 3 adults in my car it sure would’ve been a tight squeeze to try to get 2 more people in there! It is definitely not for those who are claustrophobic.

The Arch’s 2 legs were built separately, and if their measurements were off by as little as 1/64th of an inch they would not have been able to be joined at the top. And it sways! In 150MPH wind the top of the arch moves up to 9 inches off center for a total sway of 18 inches. Yikes!!!

Another fun fact is that Presidents aren’t allowed to go to the top due to security concerns – it is a very tight enclosed space that can’t be well protected. The cool part about the 4 minute ride up to the top is that the tram car that you ride in has windows and you can see out into the interior of the arch - mostly a steel staircase and lots of cables.

When standing under the arch if you look very closely you can see that there are observation windows in the very top section. At the top of the arch the triangular sections are such that the top is flat and the bottom of the arch is the pointed part of the triangle so the windows face out/down at an angle so that you can actually look down and look beyond the centerline of the arch. it’s a weird feeling to look down and be able to see the base of both legs of the arch! I was actually surprised at how big the observation area on the top actually was! The muddy Mississippi river flows past at quite a clip - the view towards St. Louis is much nicer.

After the Arch I headed over to the Federal Reserve Museum thinking that it was a mint (where they make coins) but turns out it’s very similar to the Fed that I had just been to in Chicago where they produce and shred bills, so nothing much new to report there.

In the afternoon I went to the Cathedral Basilica, which is about 4 miles west of the Arch. I’ve been to so many churches in my time but I have to say that this was by far the most colorful and sparkly and is considered a “one of a kind” work of art. Construction began in 1907 and the work on the cathedral continued for another 80 years. The interior of the church is one of the largest collections of mosaics in the world, and contains about 41.5 million (MILLION!!!) glass tessarae pieces covering 83,000 ft.². It also has a Tiffany Rose window, Italian red marble, detailed statues and hand carved wooden doors. And my pictures just don’t do it justice to how much gold sparkle there is in this church! And remember you are not looking at a painted ceiling – all the images are made from millions of small pieces of colored tiles. Really astonishing!

After the Basilica I headed back into downtown St. Louis to go to the light show in the Grand Hall of Union Station. Union Station is an old train station that has been repurposed into a hotel, restaurant and shops. Every day starting at 5 PM (at the top of the hour) there is a stunning 3-D light show on the 65-foot high ceiling of the Grand Hall. The show features 3-D images of flying birds and kaleidoscopic flowers and colorful geometrics projected across the entire ceiling set to music. WOW!

Although today was a rare overcast/gray day, my time at the Basilica and at Union Station sure did provide all the color I needed to make the day not feel dreary!