St. Louis Arch: Gateway to the West

The St. Louis Gateway Arch is a really elegant monument to the westward expansion in the United States. It's located on the banks of the famous Mississippi River, in St. Louis, Missouri. It is also 630 feet tall stainless steel arch that rises above the city's skyline of St. Louis. Also the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial of the Gateway Arch consist this museum of the Westward Expansion, and the St. Louis Old Courthouse. The design was chosen by a nationwide competition in the years 1947 to 1948, to design a monument in St. Louis honoring the Western Pioneers.

The architect Eero Saarinen (August 20, 1910 to September 1st, 1961) won the big contest with his sleek, awesome arch. The construction of the arch began on the day of February 12, 1963 and it was finished on October 28, 1965. The arch was then opened to the public on the day of July 24, 1967. There are two bases that are equilateral triangles, the triangles have a three 54 foot long sides. Only at the top of the arch triangle is only 17 feet long on each side.

All of the visitors enter the arch by way of an underground visitor's center, and can then take travel to the observation deck to the top in a 40 passenger tram, that does run inside the arch. This tram is made like a roller coaster. This arch has a 60 foot deep foundation. The arch is very stable, and is reliable, and it was built to withstand high winds and also any earthquakes. This fancy structure sways about one inch in a 20 mph wind; it is also designed to sway up to 18 inches in 150 miles per hour winds.

If you have already went up this arch you know that it does sway, for you can feel it and it feels very creepy. The St. Louis Gateway Arch is in the main form of an inverted catenary, which is a very stable structure that is often used in bridges, domes, and arches. The catenary is shaped that like a chain or necklace forms when held by the two ends. They say the Dutch mathematician Christiaan Huygens named this same curve from the Latin word caternarius, which does mean "related to a chain."
The facts and figures about the St. Louis Gateway Arch are:

* height is 630 feet

· * weight around 43,000 tons

* width at the base 630 feet