We're gonna go up in the Arch today, or at least I am! And my wife and I are also
going to go through the Museum and watch the movie about how they constructed the Arch.
And you used to go in by walking to either one of the legs. Since they've
redone the Arch, you actually enter from the top of the hill. Downtown St. Louis
is that way. There's the Courthouse. So across from there is the actual entrance
to the Arch.
You walk through the museum area first.
It says welcome to the Gateway Arch
National Park.
Ok now we're walking through the Arch Museum.
This is the
first set of dates that it starts. 1764 to 1804, Colonial St. Louis.
And we're
gonna take a quick walk through.
St. Louis was founded in February 15th of 1764.
It was a busy trading post.
Tanned deer hide.
And there was deer skin. Whoa, it's
thick.
So St. Louis was known as the Gateway to the West.
They started with powerful trading.
The rivers were the first super highways.
They have little things for the kids to do here. Like it says match the heads
with their bodies and feet to reveal the figures painted by Anna Marie von Phul.
People came to St. Louis from around the world.
Wooden work shoes. These are
the actual size. Wow!
This is a double-pitched roof house.
Early St. Louis houses have their own style. And skilled workers built them.
St. Louisians hired carpenters and stonemasons is to build their homes.
Many craftsmen receive furs and hides in payment for their work.
1804 to 1840
Jefferson's Vision.
There's a statue of Thomas Jefferson.
Here it talks about the
Louisiana Purchase.
What were they looking for? They found vast plains and
soaring mountains.
This area talks about the era after the
Louisiana Purchase came into effect, which happened in 1804. It was approved
and authorized by Thomas Jefferson.
And he started Lewis and Clark out on their
expedition to explore this vast area.
Here's some of the Indian tools and weapons.
Here's a war club.
This talks about the mountain men that lived in the new
country, the wild area.
Trappers and hunters. There's a beaver trap.
Some of the
knives they used. Some for skinning.
They often worked in hostile Indian country.
1840 to 1860 - the era of Manifest Destiny.
These are different viewpoints
of the same time period.
By a war or by treaty, the United States was determined
to expand.
Another viewpoint was that the North was taken from Mexico.
Of course
the American Indian viewpoint.
Sign a treaty or stand and fight?
There's an old stagecoach.
1838 to 1860 - the Riverfront Era.
This was a time of change in St. Louis.
The town
in the riverfront area grew quickly.
And this depicts the St. Louis riverfront in
the early 1850's.
In 1849, 4,500 people died of cholera in St. Louis,
out of a
population of 63,000.
Gold Rush pioneers carried cholera westward from St. Louis.
The single biggest killer of immigrants on the Overland trails.
Big steamboats
were workhorses back then,
moving people and freight .
1860 to 1930 - New Frontiers.
Most people know the Mythical West better than the historical west,
whose story has been told in books, and art, and especially in the movies.
The Indians at that time fought to defend their cultures and
traditions. The government forced tribes to move.
The Civil War forever changed
St. Louis's role in Westward Expansion.
The Civil War spell disaster for St. Louis trade.
Railroads replaced river transport.
There's the old Eads Bridge.
James Eads also built some Ironclad Gunboats for the Union Army during the
Civil War.
He had a contract to build seven of these.
The Wainwright building.
It was
ten stories tall, and marked a milestone in architecture. When it was completed in
1891, this is considered the first true skyscraper.
1932 - Today. Building the Arch.
In 1947, there was a competition held to design the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.
These were the five finalists.
Of course, this was the winner...the Gateway Arch design that we have today.
Designed by Eero Saarinen. I'm sure I said that wrong, but I think this was
definitely the right choice.
There's the Arch he designed and a chair
he designed.
That's known as the Tulip Chair.
The Arch is an amazing design...630 feet
tall by 630 feet wide.
It was estimated that 13 people would die while they were
building it. But nobody died.
It's amazing. It is amazing.
It means some very skilled workers and probably a lot
of wives and husbands, whoever was working on it, prayed.
They found nothing
simple except the shape.
It took a leap of faith.
A lot of people like the design but didn't think it could be built.
The Museum is very cool, very informative and gives you a great look at the history of
St. Louis, right up until now.
There is an admission fee to the Arch.
I believe that
admission fee is just three dollars.
And we bought tickets to see the documentary
movie about the making of the Arch, Monument to the Dream.
It's 35 minutes long.
And we're going to the four o'clock showing.
This is the movie theater where
we got to see the building of the Arch. There's the builders. And there's the
piece up there that's still missing.
And that happened in 1965.
And this shows the ticket prices.
The See Everything Combo
that includes the Tram ride to the top, the movie, and the St. Louis Riverfront Cruise, is $33.
These are individual prices. Tram - 12. Movie - 7. Cruise - 20.
Children - 8, 3, and 8.
This is a little coffee shop where you can get
sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, burgers, ribs.
The tables are really cool, it talks
about Lewis and Clark.
And I got a really good coffee in there too.
And in the
little gift shop, there's like a fudge shop in the back of the gift shop.
This is the Arch Store.
So of course when you first walk in, there's an Arch for sale.
And there's a book about it.
I can smell the fudge!
Of course there's like
t-shirts and hats. The whole city of St. Louis on the hat.
And here's some tumblers. Not bad,
they're like $15, $15.95.
They even have Fitz's Root Beer.
that says Gateway Arch on it.
Hoodies.
Bags, that's cute.
A Jefferson large bust. It's only $495.00.
As you're coming in or leaving, you can see this big map of the United States.
And right over here in this part, is St. Louis.