National park consists of the Gateway Arch, a steel catenary arch that has become the definitive icon of St. Louis; a 91-acre (36.8 ha) park; the Old Courthouse where the Dred Scott case originated; and the 140,000 sq ft (13,000 m2) museum

Getting There

Head south toward S Tucker Blvd. Take Market St and N 4th St to Laclede's Landing Blvd. Continue on Laclede's Landing Blvd. Drive to N Leonor K Sullivan Blvd.

Overview

Gateway Arch National Park is an national park located in St. Louis, Missouri, near the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

The memorial was established to commemorate:

• The Louisiana Purchase, and the subsequent westward movement of American explorers and pioneers
• The first civil government west of the Mississippi River
• The debate over slavery raised by the Dred Scott case.

The national park consists of the Gateway Arch, a steel catenary arch that has become the definitive icon of St. Louis; a 91-acre (36.8 ha) park along the Mississippi River on the site of the earliest buildings of the city; the Old Courthouse, a former state and federal courthouse where the Dred Scott case originated; and the 140,000 sq ft (13,000 m2) museum at the Gateway Arch.

The immediate surroundings of the Gateway Arch were initially designated the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (a national memorial) by executive order on December 21, 1935. The Gateway Arch was completed on October 28, 1965, and the area surrounding it was redesignated as the "Gateway Arch National Park" (a national park) in 2018. The park is maintained by the National Park Service (NPS).

Components

The Gateway Arch

The Gateway Arch, known as the "Gateway to the West", is the tallest structure in Missouri. It was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen and structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel in 1947 and built between 1963 and October 1965. It stands 630 feet (192 m) tall and 630 feet (192 m) wide at its base. The legs are 54 feet (16.5 m) wide at the base, narrowing to 17 feet (5.2 m) at the arch. There is a unique tram system to carry passengers to the observation room at the top of the arch.

Old Courthouse

The Old Courthouse is built on land originally deeded by St. Louis founder Auguste Chouteau. It marks the location over which the arch reaches. Its dome was built during the American Civil War and is similar to the dome on the United States Capitol which was also built during the Civil War. It was the site of the local trials in the Dred Scott case.

The courthouse is the only portion of the memorial west of Interstate 44. To the west of the Old Courthouse is a Greenway between Market and Chestnut Streets which is only interrupted by the Civil Courts Building which features a pyramid model of the Mausoleum of Mausolus (which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) on its roof. When the Civil Courts building was built in the 1920s, the Chouteau family sued to regain the property belonging to the Old Courthouse because it had been deeded in perpetuity to be a courthouse.

The United States Congress approved the Gateway Arch National Park Designation Act in early 2018 to redesignate Jefferson National Expansion Memorial as Gateway Arch National Park. U.S. President Donald Trump signed the act into law on February 22, 2018.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Gateway Arch National Park", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0