The Gateway Arch

St. Louis Trip, Day 4, Monday, July 27, 2015

From the Old Courthouse, we walked over to the most famous landmark in St. Louis, the Gateway Arch.

After standing in line outside, we went through security.  Inside there were benches for people to wait for their turn up, and screens with the schedule.  A loudspeaker announced as each group had its turn to go up.  We toured one of the gift shops, and my sisters had a couple pennies pressed into souvenirs.

We moved into the hallway when it was our turn to go up.  The walls were decorated with St. Louis history: dates, populations, maps, and pictures.  Everyone is asked to stop for a photo before going up into the arch.  Photos are then available for free when you come back down.

Over each elevator car, there was a screen which played a short documentary on the city's history.  The screens on the side we boarded were more modern, but on the side we disembarked, the screens were still old fashioned tv sets.  

Karen and her dad Mike had been up in the Arch before, and Karen assured us there were steps inside the arch, so that if the elevators stopped (as elevators tend to do in so many scary movies), we could escape.  

We boarded car #5, and went up...and up...and up.  The car had a window, so we could look down the elevator shaft.  There were steps every so often, but if the car had stopped in the wrong spot, we would have needed to be rescued another way!  Thankfully there were no problems, and we arrived at the top in no time.

On the one side we could look out over the Mississippi and watch the boats/barges.  And on the other side, wow...we were treated to quite the view of St. Louis!

It was awesome to look down on the Old Capitol, Busch Stadium (home of the St. Louis Cardinals), and all the skyscrapers!  I would definitely recommend the Gateway Arch as something everyone--or at least everyone who doesn't suffer from acrophobia or claustrophobia--should visit at least once!

Have you ever visited the Gateway Arch?