43 Fun Facts About Gateway Arch National Park

The park sits on the bank of which river?

The park lines the west bank of the Mississippi River in downtown St. Louis, on the riverfront where the city was founded as a French fur-trading post.

How does the park rank in size among US national parks?

Gateway Arch is the smallest US national park, an urban riverfront strip in St. Louis; the next-smallest, Hot Springs in Arkansas, is nearly 30 times bigger.

How tall is the Gateway Arch?

The Gateway Arch stands 630 feet tall and 630 feet wide at the base, making it the tallest arch in the world and the tallest man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere.

Which Finnish-American architect designed the arch?

Eero Saarinen, son of architect Eliel Saarinen, won the 1947–48 competition with the arch; his other works include the TWA Flight Center at JFK, Dulles airport's terminal and the Tulip chair.

What embarrassing mix-up happened when the 1947 competition result was announced?

The notice was addressed to 'E. Saarinen'; the family toasted Eliel, and two hours later an official rang to say the winner was his son Eero, so they opened a second bottle.

What was the site called from 1935 until 2018?

The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial was established by presidential executive order on 21 December 1935 to commemorate the Louisiana Purchase and westward expansion; Congress renamed it Gateway Arch National Park in 2018.

Which senator sponsored the bill that renamed the memorial Gateway Arch National Park?

Senator Roy Blunt introduced the Gateway Arch National Park Designation Act in 2017; it passed both houses and was signed into law on 22 February 2018, despite grumbling that a monument is not a 'national park'.

Which St. Louis civic booster first pitched the riverfront memorial idea in 1933?

Luther Ely Smith, a lawyer and civic activist, conceived the riverfront memorial in 1933 after visiting the George Rogers Clark memorial in Vincennes, Indiana; he led the memorial association and gave $40,000 toward the design competition.

What later emerged about the 1935 bond election that approved buying the riverfront?

The 40-block clearance was bitterly opposed by the Post-Dispatch; the true number of voters in favour is unknown, and the government paid about 132 percent of assessed value.

Roughly how many downtown blocks were razed to make room for the memorial?

Among the losses were fur trader Manuel Lisa's 1818 'Old Rock House' and Jean Pierre Chouteau's 1819 home; a single church was spared.

How tall was the arch in Saarinen's original winning design?

Saarinen's 1948 competition design called for an arch 590 feet tall and 590 feet wide; as the plans were refined and the site shifted to higher ground, it later grew in both height and width.

On what date was the arch completed with the placing of its keystone?

The final 8-foot keystone section was set on 28 October 1965, two and a half years after construction began in February 1963, joining the two legs at the top.

What did workers have to do to fit the final keystone section?

The morning sun was expanding the south leg and closing the 8.5-foot gap, so firefighters sprayed it with hoses to cool and shrink it; the final piece went in about 30 minutes ahead of schedule.

What was welded into the keystone before it was set?

Most of the signatures were schoolchildren's; a priest and a rabbi prayed over the 10-ton, eight-foot triangular section.

How many prefabricated stainless steel sections make up the arch?

Each 12-foot triangle was hoisted by creeper derricks and its double skin filled with concrete; a scissors truss steadied the legs at 530 feet.

How many construction workers died building the arch?

None: despite an insurers' prediction of 13 deaths, no worker was killed building the arch between 1963 and 1965; about a million people came to watch the construction in 1963 alone.

How far is the arch designed to sway in strong wind?

The arch is built to sway up to 18 inches either way in 150 mph winds, though a 20 mph breeze moves it only about an inch; each leg rests on a foundation 60 feet deep.

What shape is the cross-section of each leg of the arch?

Each leg is an equilateral triangle in cross-section, 54 feet on a side at the ground and tapering to 17 feet at the top, which is why the legs look slimmer as they rise.

The tram to the top has been described as half elevator and half what?

Designer Dick Bowser's tram is half elevator, half Ferris wheel: its small capsules rotate to stay level as they climb the curved legs, taking four minutes up and three minutes down.

How many people can each tram carry at once?

Eight capsules of five seats each; with two trams, 80 people can ride at a time and the observation deck holds about 160.

How many emergency steps climb each leg of the arch?

Each leg contains an emergency stairway of 1,076 steps for use if the trams fail; it is not open to visitors, who reach the top only by tram.

What was the original fee that paid off the bonds that financed the tram?

Riders paid $1 a trip, and the fares repaid the revenue bonds that the Bi-State Development Agency issued in 1962 to build and run the trams after the Park Service ran short of money.

On 14 July 1964, civil rights activists Percy Green and Richard Daly did what?

The Congress of Racial Equality members were highlighting the lack of Black contractors and skilled workers on a federally funded job; they came down after four hours and were arrested.

Who officially dedicated the arch on 25 May 1968?

Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Interior Secretary Stewart Udall formally dedicated the arch on 25 May 1968, the project having stalled during the Korean War after Harry Truman dedicated the site in 1950.

What happened to Kenneth Swyers on 22 November 1980?

He had planned a BASE jump off the top with his reserve chute; a 1992 climber, John Vincent, did reach the top with suction cups and parachuted down.

The Old Courthouse in the park was the scene of the local trials in which landmark case?

The enslaved Scott sued for his and his wife's freedom in 1846; the Supreme Court ruled against them in 1857, saying they had no standing as citizens.

Which suffragist's lawsuit over being refused a vote in 1872 began in the Old Courthouse?

Virginia Minor sued registrar Reese Happersett for refusing to register her in 1872; the case began in the Old Courthouse, and in 1875 the Supreme Court ruled in Minor v. Happersett that the Constitution conferred no right to vote.

What material is the Old Courthouse's Civil War-era dome made of?

William Rumbold's dome, built in 1861–64, is framed in cast iron and wrought iron, among the earliest iron domes in the United States; it was raised while the Capitol dome in Washington was also under construction.

The Civil Courts Building west of the Old Courthouse carries a model of what on its roof?

The Civil Courts Building, opened in 1930, is crowned with a replica of the Mausoleum of Mausolus at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, complete with a stepped pyramid roof.

What was Three Flags Day in St. Louis in 1804?

The ceremony completed the Louisiana Purchase and legally cleared Lewis and Clark to head west, which Spain had forbidden.

The 1780 attack on the village was beaten off from which fort on the site?

Fort San Carlos, a stone tower hastily built under Spanish lieutenant-governor Fernando de Leyba, anchored the defence when some 1,000 British-allied warriors and traders attacked on 26 May 1780; the battle is known as the Battle of St. Louis.

The 'Park over the Highway' project completed in 2014 solved what problem?

The Park over the Highway is a landscaped land bridge over the sunken interstate lanes (I-70, now I-44) that had cut the arch grounds off from downtown and the Old Courthouse; the wider $380 million CityArchRiver renovation finished in 2018.

Which state quarter, released in 2003, features the arch?

Missouri's 2003 state quarter shows Lewis and Clark returning down the Missouri River in 1806 with the Gateway Arch rising behind them, with the inscription 'Corps of Discovery 1804–2004'.

The Eads Bridge just north of the arch grounds, finished in 1874, pioneered the large-scale use of what?

The Eads Bridge was the first large bridge built with structural steel, in chrome-steel tubular arches; its caissons sank foundations over 100 feet down, and its 520-foot centre span was the world's longest rigid span at the time.

How did the arch's architect die in September 1961, before construction had even begun?

The architect died on 1 September 1961 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, during surgery for a brain tumour, aged 51; his firm, led by Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo, saw the arch through to completion.

Roughly how large is Gateway Arch National Park?

Gateway Arch National Park covers about 193 acres of riverfront in downtown St. Louis, including the arch grounds and the Old Courthouse two blocks west; the arch grounds alone are about 91 acres.

Which landscape architect designed the park grounds around the arch?

Kiley was part of Saarinen's 1947 competition team, alongside sculptor Lily Swann Saarinen and painter Alexander Girard.

In which year did the arch open to the public?

The arch opened to the public in 1967: the visitor centre beneath it opened on 10 June and the first tram began carrying passengers to the top on 24 July that year.

The arch stands on the site of the founding of St. Louis in which year?

St. Louis was founded in 1764, when Pierre Laclède and his young stepson Auguste Chouteau chose the riverfront bluff for a fur-trading post; Chouteau's men began clearing the site that February.

Which St. Louis mayor convened the December 1933 meeting that endorsed the riverfront memorial?

Mayor Bernard Dickmann called the meeting of civic leaders on 15 December 1933 that backed the memorial idea and set up an association to lobby Washington for it.

How far can visitors see from the observation windows at the top on a clear day?

On a clear day the view from the top reaches up to 30 miles in each direction, through 16 small windows on each side measuring just 7 by 27 inches.

How high does the arch's 12-passenger elevator go?

Beyond that, the only ways up are the trams in each leg or the 1,076-step emergency stairs.

How much did the federal government pay to acquire the riverfront buildings by eminent domain?

The federal government paid about $7 million for the riverfront properties after long court fights over eminent domain, roughly 132 percent of their assessed value; demolition then began in 1939.