St Louis Downtown Sky View

From my St Louis, Missouri vacation trip, this photo of downtown St Louis, I am standing 630 feet in the air, facing west. To get to the top of the arch, they have a small eight car tram that seats five people per pod. There is a tram on the north and south legs, plus a set of stairs that spiral all the way to the top. There is however, no restrooms once you reach the top. So drinking a 64 ounce beverage before you make your way up the arch is not recommended.

The green domed building is the historic Old Court House. The Dred Scott decision took place in that very building. The whole city has such a rich history, we needed to spend more time here to learn more than we did. Their historic past was the reason the arch was built here in the first place.

Saint Louis, Missouri Road Trip

This past spring, my daughter had a school project that was due. Every child in her class was assigned a United States monument or historic place to give a report on, plus they had to make a model of what they were assigned. My daughter was given the task of reporting on the Saint Louis Gateway Arch. Parents were encouraged to help their child with their report and model creation. I was excited to help. My daughter presented a model of the Gateway Arch and gave her verbal report to her classmates. Then all of the classes models and reports were on display one evening for all of the parents to see.

At the end of the summer, wifey and I decided that we should take the family down to see the arch in person. Give a bit of realism to my daughters project that she and I worked so hard on. So at the end of August, we made our way south of the Twin Cities, all the way down to St Louis, Missouri.

Now I've visited the Saint Louis Photo Blog many times since they started posting photos and I've seen many photos of the Gateway arch, including the Thursday Arch Series. I've at times wondered why so many photos of the arch. After visiting Saint Louis and seeing the arch in person, I found myself taking many photos of the arch. I now understand the joy of taking photos of the arch. It's such a dominating piece of the downtown area plus all of the weather and sunlight reflections. A very fascinating piece to photograph. The arch is 630 feet tall, 630 feet wide and is the tallest structure in the area. Until I saw it up close, the size of this man made structure was hard for me to visualize.