The Gateway Arch

Historical Background:
The arch was designed by Finnish-born American architect Eero Saarinen in 1948 and was
constructed between 1963 and 1965. The strong, elegant shape of the arch represents a door to
the western part of the country. The arch is 630 feet (192 metres) tall, and the distance between
its two legs is equal to its height. Inside are two trams, each of which consists of eight cars that
each carry up to five seated people at a time. Visitors can take a four-minute tram ride to the
viewing platform at the top of the arch. Sixteen windows face east, and the same number face
west for views of the city, river, and surrounding land. At the base of the arch, the Museum of
Westward Expansion features displays showing what life was like in the 1800s as well as
exhibits on the construction of the arch.
There’s hardly a more recognizable landmark in the Midwest than St. Louis’s towering Gateway
Arch, a 630-foot-tall monument to Thomas Jefferson and his ideas for America’s westward
expansion. It’s the tallest monument in the United States and the tallest arch in the world.
Designed by the American-Finnish architect Eero Saarinen, the arch was an engineering feat in
fact, many people didn’t think it would stand. But as a testament to the architects, engineers,
and workers who built it, the Gateway Arch has long stood the test of time. It officially opened
in 1965 (sadly, four years after Saarinen’s death), and it’s drawn millions of visitors since. 

Founded by the National Park Service in 1935 to commemorate Thomas Jefferson’s vision of a
transcontinental United States, the Gateway Arch National Park (formerly known as the
“Jefferson National Expansion Memorial”) stretches from the Old Courthouse to the steps
overlooking the Mississippi River. In between, the Gateway Arch rises high, a bold monument
to the pioneering spirit. Today, the Gateway Arch celebrates the diverse people who shaped the
region and the country. The dreamer, Thomas Jefferson, negotiated the Louisiana Purchase in
1803, doubling the size of the United States. The explorers, Lewis & Clark and their Shoshone
guide Sacagawea, scouted the new territory and mapped a route to the Pacific Ocean. The
challengers, Dred and Harriet Scott, filed suit at the Old Courthouse for their freedom from
slavery, and St. Louis suffragette Virginia Minor sued for women’s right to vote. The artist,
architect Eero Saarinen, designed the monument that honors them all. The monument we know
today began in 1935, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt designated property along the St.
Louis riverfront to be developed as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (now known as
Gateway Arch National Park). While the land was cleared for construction, the City of St. Louis
deeded the Old Courthouse to the National Park Service to be incorporated into the Memorial.
In 1948, a nationwide design competition determined what shape the Memorial would take, and
in 1963, construction began on architect Eero Saarinen’s design for a stainless steel arch.
Completed in 1965, the Gateway Arch stands as a symbol of national identity and an iconic
example of mid-century modern design. Anchoring the west end of the Park, the Old
Courthouse is a prime example of mid-19th century federal architecture. Built in 1839, the
Courthouse served as the site of a number of landmark civil rights cases, including the Dred
Scott decision. In the 1830s, the enslaved Scott was taken to free territory in Illinois and
Wisconsin before being brought back to Missouri. In 1847 and 1850, under Missouri’s “once
free, always free” doctrine, Scott sued for his freedom at the St. Louis Courthouse. In 1857, the
U.S. Supreme Court decided against Scott and his wife Harriet, ruling that African-Americans
were not citizens and had no right to sue in court. Dissent over the decision helped to speed the
start of the U.S. Civil War four years later.

St. Louis, city, adjacent to but independent of St. Louis county, east-central Missouri, U.S. It
lies on the west bank of the Mississippi River (bridged there at several points) opposite East St.
Louis, Illinois, just south of the confluence of the Missouri River.The city’s boundaries have
remained unchanged since 1876, when it became administratively independent. It is, however,
the state’s largest most populous metropolitan area communities include
Chesterfield, Florissant, Kirkwood, St. Charles, and University City in Missouri
and Alton, Belleville, East St. Louis, and Granite City in Illinois. Inc. town, 1809; city, 1822.
Area city, 66 square miles (171 square km). Pop. (2000) 348,189; St. Louis Metro Area,
2,698,687; (2010) 319,294; St. Louis Metro Area, 2,812,896.

Design description:
During a nation-wide competition in 1947-48, architect Eero Saarinen's inspired design for a
630-foot stainless steel arch was chosen as a perfect monument to the spirit of the western
pioneers. Construction of the Arch began in 1963, and was completed on October 28, 1965, for
a total cost of less than $15 million. The Arch has foundations sunk 60 feet into the ground, and
is built to withstand earthquakes and high winds; it sways up to 1 inch in a 20 mph wind, and is
built to sway up to 18 inches. A Grand Staircase leads from the St. Louis levee up to the base of
the Gateway Arch. The strong, elegant shape of the arch represents a door to the western part of
the country. The arch is 630 feet (192 metres) tall, and the distance between its two legs is equal
to its height. Eero Saarinen, in designing the Arch, conceived of it in stainless steel, and asked
Fred Severud to study its feasibility from the structural engineering point of view, again
demonstrating the need for joining the skills of more than one discipline in order to create a
project of this magnitude.
The stainless-steel-faced Arch spans 630 feet between the outer faces of its triangular legs at
ground level, and its top soars 630 feet into the sky. 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.
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 7-3/4 inches apart
above the 400-foot level. Up to the 300-foot mark the space between the walls is filled with
reinforced concrete. Beyond that point steel stiffeners are used.
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. Sections ranged in height from 12 feet at the base to
8 feet for the two keystone sections. The complex engineering design and construction is
completely hidden from view. All that can be seen is its sparkling stainless steel outside skin
and inner skin of carbon steel, which combine to carry the gravity and wind loads to the ground.
The Arch has no real structural skeleton. Its inner and outer steel skins, joined to form a
composite structure, give it its strength and permanence.
Entrance to the Arch is from the underground George B. Hartzog, Jr. Visitor Center, located
directly beneath it. Visitors are carried from the lobby level below to the observation platform at
the top of the Arch by a unique conveyance system - a 40-passenger train made up of eight five-
passenger capsules in each leg. Operating at the rate of 340 feet per min., the ride takes 10
minutes for the round trip. The observation platform is 65 feet by 7 feet, with plate-glass
windows providing views in the east and west directions. There is also a conventional
maintenance elevator in each leg as far as the 372-foot level, and stairways with 1,076 steps in
each leg rise from the base to the top of the Arch. The elevators and stairways are for
maintenance and emergency use only.

REFERENCES:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gateway-Arch
https://www.gatewayarch.com/experience/about/#our-visitors-have-been-seeing-
differently-from-the-very-beginning
https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/facts-about-st-louis-gateway-arch
https://www.nps.gov/jeff/planyourvisit/materials-and-techniques.htm