The Gateway Arch

The idea for a national memorial on the St. Louis riverfront dates to the 1930s, when civic leader Luther Ely Smith proposed clearing the rundown 19th-century warehouse district along the Mississippi and replacing it with a federal monument commemorating westward expansion. The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association was organized in 1934; federal authorization came in 1935 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt; site clearance proceeded through the late 1930s and early 1940s. The site sat empty for nearly a decade through World War II before the design competition was announced in 1947.

The two-stage design competition attracted 172 entries from American architects and design firms. Eero Saarinen — then 37 years old, working in his father Eliel Saarinen's Michigan studio — submitted a proposal centered on a stainless-steel catenary arch. The selection jury chose Saarinen's proposal unanimously in February 1948. The announcement was complicated by an administrative mix-up: the telegram announcing the winner was originally sent to Eliel Saarinen (Eero's father, also a respected architect, who had also entered the competition); when the error was discovered two days later, the family had already celebrated the elder Saarinen's apparent victory. The correction caused some private family awkwardness but did not change the result.

Saarinen refined the design across the late 1940s and 1950s, adjusting the proportions and the construction methodology as the project moved through federal funding and engineering reviews. Construction did not begin until February 1963 — sixteen years after the original design selection — and Saarinen had died in 1961 of a brain tumor without seeing his work realized. The Arch was topped out on October 28, 1965, when the final keystone segment was lowered into place between the two legs. The completed monument opened to the public in 1967.

The Arch's shape is a weighted catenary curve — the natural shape that a hanging chain forms when supported at both ends, inverted to stand on its legs. The specific equation describes a curve in which the cross-section tapers from 54 feet on each side at the base to 17 feet at the apex. This engineering choice produces an arch that supports its own weight efficiently across the 630-foot span; the stainless-steel exterior and concrete-filled interior carry the structural load through compression rather than relying on internal steel framing.

Construction proceeded by building each leg simultaneously from the ground up. Triangular cross-section steel sections were fabricated in Pittsburgh, shipped to St. Louis, and lifted into place using cranes that climbed the growing legs. The interior of each leg was filled with reinforced concrete up to about 300 feet; above that point, the structure transitions to a stainless-steel double-wall construction with a hollow interior carrying the tram tubes. The tolerance margin at the top — where the two legs had to meet within a fraction of an inch after rising 630 feet — was extraordinarily tight; engineers planned the keystone installation for early morning hours when temperature variations between the sunlit south leg and shaded north leg would be minimized.

The final keystone was lifted into place on October 28, 1965, in a televised ceremony attended by Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Construction crews used water sprays to cool the sun-warmed south leg during the final hours to ensure the two legs would align precisely. The keystone fit perfectly. The Arch was structurally complete on that date though final interior fitting and the tram installation took another 18 months before the monument opened to the public in 1967.

The tram system that carries visitors to the top of the Arch is one of the most unusual elevators in the world — a custom-engineered hybrid of an elevator and a Ferris wheel. Each leg contains a tram comprising eight small capsules, each holding five passengers, connected by a chain mechanism that allows the capsules to remain level while the tram travels up through the curve of the leg. The journey to the top takes four minutes; the journey back down takes three minutes. The tram was designed by Richard Bowser, an elevator engineer at the Montgomery Elevator Company, who developed the original concept in just two weeks in 1960 after Saarinen rejected the standard elevator proposals.

Inside the tram capsule, the experience is intimate and slightly claustrophobic — each capsule is small enough that knees touch across the seats. Small windows on the capsule doors let passengers see the internal structure of the Arch leg as the tram climbs. The ride is smooth despite the constant self-leveling adjustment that keeps the capsule horizontal as the tram travels through the curve. Visitors who are uncomfortable in small enclosed spaces or who have mobility challenges should consider the experience carefully before booking; the tram is the only way to reach the observation deck.

The observation deck at the top is a narrow 65-foot-long room with 16 small windows on each side. From these windows, visitors look down onto the Mississippi River and the Illinois shore on the east side and across downtown St. Louis on the west side. On clear days the view extends about 30 miles in each direction. The deck holds up to about 160 people at a time and tends to feel crowded during peak summer months; arrive early in the day or late in the afternoon for shorter lines and a less-crowded deck.

Beneath the Arch's grounds, the Museum at the Gateway Arch occupies a 46,000-square-foot underground exhibition space that was extensively renovated in 2018. The museum's six themed galleries cover the broad sweep of American westward expansion: pre-contact Indigenous nations of the Mississippi watershed, French and Spanish colonial St. Louis, the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark expedition, the 19th-century fur trade and frontier era, the settlement and statehood of the western territories, the building of the railroads and the displacement of Native peoples, and the 20th-century construction of the Arch itself. Admission to the museum is free; the museum is typically open from 9am to 6pm daily.

The riverfront grounds surrounding the Arch include reflecting pools on the north and south sides, walking paths leading down to the Mississippi River levee, and the Old Cathedral (the Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France) immediately west of the monument. The Old Cathedral predates the Arch by more than a century — construction was completed in 1834 — and is the oldest cathedral west of the Mississippi River. The cathedral is open to visitors daily and is worth a 20-minute stop for the interior alone.

Several Mississippi River cruise options operate from the Arch riverfront dock. The Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher riverboat replicas offer one-hour narrated sightseeing cruises that depart multiple times daily during the warm months. Tickets typically run $25-$30 for adults; the cruises are a pleasant way to see the Arch from the river and to get a sense of how St. Louis's geography depends on the Mississippi.

The Gateway Arch is the natural starting point for a Missouri Route 66 itinerary. The classic two-day plan: morning visit to the Arch (tram ride, museum, riverfront walk — roughly 3-4 hours), lunch at Pappy's Smokehouse for the city's best BBQ, afternoon visit to Ted Drewes Frozen Custard on Chippewa Street (a Route 66 landmark since 1929), early evening drive north to the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge for golden-hour photography on the iconic bridge that marks Route 66's original Missouri-Illinois crossing, and overnight at a downtown hotel before continuing west on Route 66 the following morning. Springfield is 200 miles southwest via I-44 (which closely follows the historic Route 66 alignment); Cuba is 75 miles southwest and a natural lunch stop on the second day.

For families, the Arch combines best with the City Museum (a remarkable repurposed-warehouse playground installation) in the same downtown visit. The two attractions are about a 10-minute drive apart and together produce a full day of family-appropriate exploration with very different aesthetic experiences — the Arch's soaring modernist minimalism contrasted with the City Museum's organic, sculptural, anarchic invention. Most families with children aged 6-14 rate the City Museum higher than the Arch; the Arch is the better photograph but the City Museum is the better experience.

For tram ride bookings, reservations are strongly recommended during peak summer months (June through August) and on Centennial-related event days in 2026. Online booking through nps.gov or the Gateway Arch Park Foundation website allows visitors to reserve specific tram departure times. Walk-up tickets are available but frequently sell out by mid-morning during peak periods. Standard tram tickets are $16 for adults; combination tickets with the riverboat cruise or the documentary film are slightly more.