From Above

View from the top of the Arch facing west into downtown. The main development is that the the depressed highway lanes no longer act as a moat between the city and the park grounds. The new park extension covers the road and creates an inviting path to the entrance to the new and greatly expanded museum. That's the circle near the center.

Here's a link to a similar photo from 2015. Although the picture doesn't come as close to the feet of the monument, you can see how access has changed for the better.     

I Could've Been A Contender, I Could've Been Somebody

So said Marlon Brando about his boxing career in On The Waterfront. The same might be said about our city. This was once a boomtown, the center of the great inland waterways and the fourth-largest city in America. Then the railroads took over and the mid-continent hub went to Chicago rather than here. Just heard that we slipped from twentieth to twenty first place in population among US metro areas. But, you know, maybe we're better off this way. We're big enough to have plenty of facilities and small enough to be manageable.       

Eero

The Finnish-Americam architect Eero Saarinen (in the center of the circle above, with glasses) was the principal designer of the Arch. He won a competition in 1948 for a monument to America's westward expansion. The engineering techniques that made construction possible did not come about until the 1950's. The structure was topped out in 1966. I showed up here for college in September 1967 and made a bee line straight for the riverfront. As with most teenagers in the 60's, my reaction was probably something along the lines of "oh WOW."  

If you are ever in this part of the world it is worth visiting the museum just to learn about how the thing was eventually put together. The statement in the third photo is completely true.

Gee whiz fact: the Arch is exactly as wide as it is tall. It's an inverted catenary arch.    

Willkommen, Bienvenue, Welcome

The concept of the new meuseum under the Arch is very different. Instead of approaching through a narrow gorge at the monument's feet, visitors walk down a gentle slope from downtown to a sweeping curved glass entrance that seems to naturally pull you in from the city. What you might call a lobby is a bit barren, three levels of white down to the exhibits themselves. There may be additions before the general public opening.            

Preview

After something like three years of construction, the new museum under the Arch had a sneak prview yesterday morning for members of the Gateway Arch Foundation. It opens to the public over Fourth of July weekend.The theme is American westward expansion. It is much bigger and more detailed than the old one. This time, the exhibits take a candid look at all the violence and cruelty involved, taking vast tracts of land from Mexicans and Native Americans at any cost.

More to come. We can consider whether Laclede and Chouteau, the French traders and explorers who founded our city, were right.