Wingding 2009 Trip Day 2
June 30
Gateway Arch Tour
220 mile to Arch
707 N 1st St
St Louis, MO 63102
(314) 923-3047
Before you visit the Gateway Arch, you may want to learn a bit more about its fascinating history.
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The Arch is the tallest national monument in the United States at 630 feet; it is the city's best known landmark and a popular tourist attraction.
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Construction began February 12, 1963 and the last section of the Arch was put into place on October 28, 1965.
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The Arch is a structure known as a catenary curve, the shape a free-hanging chain takes when held at both ends, and considered the most structurally-sound arch shape. The span of the Arch legs at ground level is 630 feet, the same as its height.
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Each year, approximately a million visitors ride the trams to the top of the Arch. The trams have been in operation for over 30 years, traveling a total of 250,000 miles and carrying over 25 million passengers.
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The Arch weighs 17,246 tons. Nine hundred tons of stainless steel was used to build the Arch, more than any other project in history.
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The Arch was built at a cost of $13 million. The transportation system was built at a cost of $3,500,000.
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In order to ensure that the constructed legs would meet, the margin of error for failure was 1/64th of an inch. All survey work was done at night to eliminate distortion caused by the sun's rays. Since the Arch was constructed before the advent of computer technology, relatively crude instruments were used for these measurements.
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The Arch sways a maximum of 18" (9" each way) in a 150 mph wind. The usual sway is 1/2".
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Learn more Gateway Arch Facts.
Physical description
The cross-sections of its legs are equilateral triangles, narrowing from 54 feet (16.5 m) per side at the base to 17 feet (5.2 m) at the top. Each wall consists of a stainless steel skin covering a sandwich of two carbon steel walls with reinforced concrete in the middle from ground level to 300 feet (91 m), with carbon steel and rebar from 300 feet (91 m) to the peak. The interior of the Arch is hollow and contains a unique transport system leading to an observation deck at the top. The interior of the Arch also contains two emergency stairwells of 1076 steps each, in the event of a need to evacuate the Arch or if a problem develops with the tram system.
The base of each leg at ground level had an engineering tolerance of one sixty-fourth of an inch or the two legs would not meet at the top.
During construction, both legs were built up simultaneously. When the time came to connect both legs together at the apex, thermal expansion of the sunward facing south leg prevented it from aligning precisely with the north leg. This alignment problem was solved when the St. Louis Fire Department sprayed the south leg with water from firehoses until it had cooled to the point where it aligned with the north leg.
It is the tallest habitable structure in St. Louis (taller than One Metropolitan Square, the tallest building), and the second tallest in Missouri (behind One Kansas City Place in Kansas City).
Tram
Eero Saarinen died from a brain tumor four years before the Arch was completed; prior to his death he had decided to incorporate a power lift system to obviate the need to climb the 1000-plus stairs. But the shape of the arch would have made a standard elevator impossible. After approaching several elevator companies who failed to come up with a viable method, Saarinen hired parking-lot elevator designer Richard Bowser to do the job. Skeptical city leaders gave Bowser only two weeks to submit a design, but he succeeded. By 1968, a unique tram system that combined an elevator cable lift system with gimbaled cars functionally similar to ferris wheel gondolas had been installed.
The tram is operated by the quasi-governmental Bi-State Development Agency under an agreement with the NPS.
From the visitor center one may move to either base (one on the north end and the other on the south end) of the Arch and enter the tramway much as one would enter an ordinary elevator, through narrow double doors. The north queue area includes displays which interpret the design and construction of the Gateway Arch; the south queue area includes displays about the St. Louis riverfront during the mid-19th century.
Passing through the doors, passengers in groups of five enter an egg-shaped compartment containing five seats and a flat floor. Because of the car shape, the compartments have sloped ceilings low enough to force taller riders to lean forward while seated (for this reason it's recommended that the tallest of the five passengers in the car sit in the center seat facing the door). Eight compartments are linked to form a train, meaning that both trains have a capacity of 40, and that 80 people can be transported at one time. These compartments individually retain an appropriate level by periodically rotating every 5 degrees, which allows them to maintain the correct orientation while the entire train follows curved tracks up one leg of the arch. The trip to the top of the Arch takes four minutes, and the trip down takes three minutes. The car doors have narrow windows, allowing passengers to see the interior stairways and structure of the Arch during the trip.
[edit] Observation area
Near the top of the arch, the rider exits the compartment and climbs a slight grade to enter the arched observation area. Thirty-two small windows (16 per side) measuring 7 x 27 inches (178 mm x 686 mm) allow views across the Mississippi River and southern Illinois with its prominent Mississippian culture mounds to the east at Cahokia Mounds, and the City of Saint Louis and St. Louis County to the west beyond the city. On a clear day, one can see up to thirty miles (48 km).
Hours: Open daily except Thanksgiving,
Christmas and New Year's Day. Winter hours (Labor Day - Memorial Day), 9
a.m. - 5 p.m.; Summer hours (Memorial Day - Labor Day), 8 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Hours subject to change.
Handicap Accessible: Limited
Tram
tickets: $10 adults (16 & older), $7 youth (13 - 15), $3 children (3 -
12)
Movie Tickets: $7 adults (16 & older), $4 youth (13 - 15), $2.50
children (3 - 12).
Each adult tram ticket includes a $3.00 National Park entrance fee. For
more information or reservations, call 314-982-1410.
SWEETIE PIE'S
Thank goodness former Ikette Robbie Montgomery put down her microphone and picked up her mixing spoon years back. For now in St. Louis there is Sweetie Pie’s, hallowed ground for soul-food lovers. This grub is the real deal, and this lady can cook. Feast on smothered pork steak, baked chicken, ribs, Salisbury steak (main-course meats change from day to day) and side it up with classics like mac 'n' cheese, okra, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice and gravy, or cabbage and greens. The original location in north county is more like a lunchbox diner; this much newer one in the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood has nestled nicely into its more genteel, spacious digs. See listing for flagship location under "North."
Travel miles for today is 304 miles
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After
02:00 PM