#ST LOUIS ARCH HISTORY MOVIE#
#ST LOUIS ARCH HISTORY WINDOWS#

The landscaping brings The Arch and its grounds to a comprehensive work melding landscape and sculpture. He applied geometrical precepts and classical design elements to create a setting that is both stunningly and subtly appropriate. Landscape design was applied by landscaping architect Dan Kiley. The Arch’s landscape reflects the nature of the structure. The Arch was only 24 years old when NHL designation was bestowed and the landscape plan had been completed only seven years earlier. The Gateway Arch and its surrounding grounds were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

#ST LOUIS ARCH HISTORY WINDOWS#

The observation platform is 65 feet by 7 feet, with plate-glass windows providing views to the east and west of The Arch.

The capsules move at a rate of 340 feet per min., the ride takes 10 minutes round trip. Visitors will ride a unique conveyance a 40-passenger train made up of eight five-passenger capsules in each leg to the observation platform at the top of the Arch. Visitor Center, located directly beneath it. Its inner and outer steel skins, joined to form a composite structure, give it its strength and permanence.Įntrance to the Arch is through the soon to be newly completed museum to the George B. The amazing part is The Arch has no real structural skeleton. Sections ranged in height from 12 feet at the base to 8 feet for the two keystone sections. The double-walled, triangular sections were placed one on top of another and then welded inside and out to build the legs of the Arch. Beyond that point, steel stiffeners are used. Up to the 300-foot mark, the space between the walls is filled with reinforced concrete. The legs have double walls of steel 3 feet apart at ground level and 7-3/4 inches apart above the 400-foot level. It takes the shape of an inverted catenary curve a shape such as would be formed by a heavy chain hanging freely between two supports.Įach leg is a symmetrical triangle with sides 54 feet long at ground level, narrowing to 17 feet at the top. The stainless-steel-faced Arch spans 630 feet between the outer faces of its triangular legs at the ground level, and its top soars 630 feet into the sky. The Gateway Arch borrows the arch concept from Captain Eads and makes use of the new concept of stress analysis and structural design from Poplar Street Bridge.Įero Saarinen conceived the Arch in stainless steel and asked structural engineer Fred Severud to study its feasibility from the structural engineering point of view, demonstrating the need for joining the skills of more than one discipline in order to create a project of this magnitude. Bridge of this size to employ orthotropic design. At the southern end of Poplar Street Bridge which is a steel plate girder bridge the first U.S. Historic bridges surround the north and south of The Arch, to the north you have Eads Bridge was the first tubular steel arch structure of its kind. It also serves as one of three firsts in the history of engineering in this country, all in the City of St. The glorious concept, imposing in its setting and unique in its design, the Gateway Arch was part of the $30 million Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Courtesy of the National Park Service.ĭetail, entry #144 by Eero Saarinen. Presentation collage entry #144 by Eero Saarinen. View of Eero Saarinen model of St Louis Gateway Arch and riverfront. The winning design was won by architect Eero Saarinen, it would be the start of his career. The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association, a group of public citizens, held a nationwide competition in 1947 to obtain a suitable design. There are nine images in this animation that show the Arch at different points during its construction. The image on this page is an animated image of the construction of the Gateway Arch between FebruOctober 28, 1965. Courtesy of the National Park Service.Īrch under construction. View of the Gateway Arch under construction almost completed. The Gateway Arch was designed by a renowned architect, Eero Saarinen.

#ST LOUIS ARCH HISTORY MOVIE#

The center contains the Museum of Westward Expansion, which tells the century-long story of the opening of the West in the 1800s through films shown in several movie theaters. The Memorial includes an underground visitor's center directly underneath the Arch. Louis Riverfront was selected as the site of the Jefferson National Memorial, which commemorates the Westward Expansion of the United States in the 19th century, as envisioned by Thomas Jefferson.Įero Saarinen kneeling beneath a model of the Gateway Arch. It is 75 feet taller than the Washington Monument and over twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty. The Gateway Arch is the nation's tallest monument (630 feet tall).

St louis arch history