St. Louis Wants to Develop the Area Around the Gateway Arch

The gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri was conceived in 1947 when an architect named Eero Saarinen won a competition to create a memorial to the start of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the country's expansion out to the west. Fifteen years later the Arch was completed in 1965 at a cost of only $15 million and without the aid of computers. I remember watching the nightly news stories on TV and waiting for the final piece to be put into place. There was quite a bit of speculation around town from everyday folks and so-called experts as to whether the thing would topple over or not. It didn't. Three days after it opened my friends and I took a bus downtown and stood in line for over four hours to ride the tram to the top. We were amazed how small the trams were and slightly alarmed at how they swung to accommodate the curve towards the top. When we got to the observation deck, it seemed very small also and you could almost feel it swaying in the wind, but the view of downtown and East St. Louis was incredible.

There was a lot of talk about what else was going to be put on the riverfront to embellish the country's tallest monument. Before the Arch, the riverfront was basically a bunch of cobblestone streets and old run-down warehouses. A lot of ideas were put forth, but for one reason or another, nothing really spectacular was ever built. A small park or green space was constructed around the Arch and an entertainment area called Laclede's Landing was built close to the river, but that was about it. As a matter of fact, several other projects like the President on the stainless steel riverboat, the Admiral, and the Becky Thatcher failed. For a city that came about because of the Mississippi River, not a whole lot of attention was paid to developing it's riverfront.