Imagine you’re 600 feet in the air, looking down at the little world below you. The itty bitty cars and teeny tiny people. It is hard to believe you were once down there, that the world shrunk or that you grew. The Mississippi River and beyond on one side, St Louis on the other. That's right, you're at the top of the western hemisphere's tallest monument, the Gateway Arch!
The Gateway Arch is 630 feet tall and wide, as well as being 43,306 tons and costing 13 million dollars. Four million people visit the park each year. Located at 11 North Fourth Street, St. Louis Mississippi, on the 90 acre Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, the arch began construction on February 12, 1963. It was finished October 28, 1965, but was not open to the public until almost 2 years later. The 900 tons of stainless steel have foundations that extend 60 feet. The Gateway Arch can withstand earthquakes and is designed to sway 18 inches in 150 mile per hour winds, which, according to the National Hurricane Center, is a level four hurricane. To get the pieces of the arch up a normal crane couldn’t be used. As a result, the Creeper Derrick was created. The Creeper Derrick was a tiltable …show more content…
Out of 172 designs, Eero Saarinen won with a stainless steel arch. The competition was tough. Eero was even up against his dad, Eliel Saarinen, designer of the Finnish Pavilion for the 1900 Paris World’s Fair. Originally, when the sent the letter saying Eero’s design moved on, everyone thought it was for Eliel. The selection committee had to send another letter to specify. But Eero’s design blew away the judges, for a monument of that size, design, and shape had never been build before. To Eero Saarinen, the stainless steel represented permanence and endurance. Unfortunately for Eero Saarinen, he died of a brain tumor and never lived to see his now famous, not even the
The Gateway Arch is 630 feet tall and wide, as well as being 43,306 tons and costing 13 million dollars. Four million people visit the park each year. Located at 11 North Fourth Street, St. Louis Mississippi, on the 90 acre Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, the arch began construction on February 12, 1963. It was finished October 28, 1965, but was not open to the public until almost 2 years later. The 900 tons of stainless steel have foundations that extend 60 feet. The Gateway Arch can withstand earthquakes and is designed to sway 18 inches in 150 mile per hour winds, which, according to the National Hurricane Center, is a level four hurricane. To get the pieces of the arch up a normal crane couldn’t be used. As a result, the Creeper Derrick was created. The Creeper Derrick was a tiltable …show more content…
Out of 172 designs, Eero Saarinen won with a stainless steel arch. The competition was tough. Eero was even up against his dad, Eliel Saarinen, designer of the Finnish Pavilion for the 1900 Paris World’s Fair. Originally, when the sent the letter saying Eero’s design moved on, everyone thought it was for Eliel. The selection committee had to send another letter to specify. But Eero’s design blew away the judges, for a monument of that size, design, and shape had never been build before. To Eero Saarinen, the stainless steel represented permanence and endurance. Unfortunately for Eero Saarinen, he died of a brain tumor and never lived to see his now famous, not even the