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A Monumental Dream Motto: The Gateway Arch rises from a “small forest set on the edge of a great river” to invoke the memory of westward expansion. Word count: 3470
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The Gateway Arch’s graceful architectural lines, stainless steel skin, and daunting
630-foot height make it prominent in the St. Louis skyline. The perilous curve that cuts
through the Midwestern sky is the result of bold ingenuity and stout workmanship. Over
the last four decades, the Arch has become a heroic symbol of courage and vision, while
memorializing the decades of western expansion. The Arch testifies deeply to the
character of men and women. The few who carried the project from its idealistic
beginning in the 1930s, to an auspicious reality in the late 1960s, exemplified the spirit of
the pioneers who developed the west.
In the year 1803, Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States,
bought all the land between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains for 5 cents an acre.
The event became known as the Louisiana Purchase and hastened the development of the
“Great West.” Hearty and stalwart pioneers traversed across the vast plains with “no
wealth except for their own labor.”1 These men and women dreamed of a hard fought life
in a land they had never before seen.
Many years later, on the western bank of the Mississippi River, the St. Louis
Gateway Arch was constructed to commemorate the history of westward expansion. The
Arch stands in honor of the “hunters, trappers, frontiersmen and pioneers who contributed
to the territorial expansion and the development of these United States.”2 It also serves as
an “integral part of the community’s life, and revive(s) the adjacent downtown area in
terms of beauty and vigor.”3
1 Story of the Gateway Arch, Jefferson National Expansion Historical Association, from original works by Mike Capps, Paul McElroy, Bob Moore and Ellis Richard, Edited by David A. Grove, printed by Nies/ Artcraft, 1992, p 22. 2 Excerpted from Pro Forma Decree of Incorporation of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Archives (hereafter referred to as JNEMA), 11 June 1934. 3 Architectural Competition for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Program, St. Louis, Missouri 1947, p. 4 JNEMA
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A few years ago, on the bank of the Mississippi, I visited the Arch as a traveler
heading west for the first time. The Arch’s strength and beauty evoked deep emotion in
me; its message still resonates. It spoke to me of the virtue of heroic courage:
We salute [man's] vintage Fashioned in daring, Skill and art. And trust that men Who come to view this shape May grasp and hold Its spirit, Noble, Bold,4
Luther Ely Smith was a St. Louis lawyer and prominent city leader. In 1933, after
returning from Vincennes, Indiana he took notice to the decaying St. Louis riverfront.5
The area adjacent the Old Courthouse,
and bounded by the Mississippi River,
was severely dilapidated. He realized
that much of St. Louis’ history was
part of the larger heritage of the United
States. There in the city of St. Louis
had occurred the transfer of the Upper
Louisiana Purchase from the Spanish, the Dred Scott trial—which spurred the start to the
civil war, and the planning of Lewis and Clark’s exploration of the west. He noted that
many of the trails the pioneers traveled began in St. Louis.6 It was here, along the
riverfront, that Smith conceived of a lasting memorial to the nation’s westward expansion.
4 Warren Wilder Towle, "A Might Purpose," published in the Story of the Gateway Arch, Jefferson National Expansion Historical Association, Edited by David A. Grove, printed by Nies/ Artcraft, 1992. 5 Brown, p 2. 6 Ibid, p 6.
Fig. 1 Riverfront property cleared for memorial
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Fig. 2 Architect Eero Saarinen
Smith approached Bernard Dickmann, the St. Louis mayor, who agreed to the idea
of an expansion memorial. With the addition of seven others, the two formed a committee
known as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association. The committee drafted
legislation to present to congress for federal appropriation. On June 14, 1934 President
Roosevelt approved a bill that established a Commission.7 Later that year he personally
telegrammed St. Louis lauding their efforts: “All good wishes for the success of your
Commission’s efforts to recall and perpetuate the ideals, the faith and courage of the
pioneers who discovered and developed the great west.”8 The years of World War II
would halt work on a national memorial; progress would ensue after the war.
In August of 1946, Smith appointed George Howe, a fellow of the American
Institute of Architects, as the advisor to a national competition.9 The competition
encouraged a pool of talented designers to submit entries for the proposed federal
memorial. By the deadline September 1, 1947, Howe
received 172 submissions. After extensive work to
reduce the number of entries, $125,000 in prize money
was awarded, and a single winner was chosen.
The winning design belonged to the
architectural firm Saarinen, Saarinen and Associates of
Bloomfield, Michigan.10 The committee congratulated
the wrong architect. Both the distinguished architect
Eliel Saarinen and his son Eero entered designs.
7 Ibid, p3. 8 Ibid, p 4. 9 Ibid, p 7. 10 Ibid.
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However, the elder Saarinen was mistakenly identified as the winner. For three days the
firm celebrated in Eliel’s honor until they were notified of the mistake.11 Ironically, the St.
Louis Arch marked the first project in which Eero Saarinen was able to work outside of
the shadow of his highly regarded father.12
The design was described by its creator Eero Saarinen as “a mathematically
precise catenary curve in which the thrust forces are kept within the center of the Arch
legs.” Saarinen believed that the arch was the right form for the place, purpose and time
and that it could be a “triumphal arch for our age.”13 He chose stainless steel and concrete
to emphasize the memorial’s permanency; Saarinen wanted his design to last for 1000
years.
Luther Ely Smith congratulated Saarinen after a dinner held in the architect’s
honor: “We are still breathless at the vision you have opened up for us by your
marvelously fine design. The more we gaze upon it, the more wonderful and gripping it
11 Ibid. 12 Ibid. 13 Temko, Eero Saarinen, pp. 18-19; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 7 March 1948.
The curve can be described by the mathematical function:
Fig. 3 Catenary Curve
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grows.”14 Saarinen responded, “When the project someday becomes a reality, we will
remember this and by refinement of detail, we will try to gain some of what has been lost
by stepping down from a great dream to reality.” Apropos to Smith’s declaration, Eero
Saarinen understood that great vision must be reduced to practical design.15
In 1962, after years of delay to relocate major passenger rail lines, four bids were
received for the construction of the Gateway Arch and visitor center. All four bids were
considerably higher than the engineer’s estimate of $8,067,000. National Park Service
officials established a committee to consult with the four firms and determine if they were
reasonable.
The committee, headed by Park Superintendent George Hartzog, concluded that
the bids were reasonable. The
National Park Service, under federal
regulations, must either accept the
low bid of MacDonald Construction
Company at $12,332,667 or send the
project out for re-bidding. Director
Conrad Wirth of the National Park
Service worried that funds would be
insufficient. But Wirth accepted MacDonald’s low bid after the company agreed to lower
their bid by $500,000.16
14 Smith to Saarinen, 25 February 1948, JNEMA. 15 Saarinen to Smith, 1 March 1948, JNEMA. 16 Jensen, J.E.N., The Construction of the Arch, United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, 11 N. Fourth St., St. Louis, Missouri 63102, unpublished internal document dated, August 1968/ February 1994, p18.
Fig. 4 Arch construction begins
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The first above ground section of the arch was placed on February 12, 1963.
Several members of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association
commemorated the start of the memorial to westward expansion by pouring water from
the Columbia River into the concrete.17 Lewis and Clark’s Oregon outpost marked the
furthest point of exploration westward. Construction moved in assembly line fashion as
each section was assembled, transported and erected.
The Arch was designed in 142 carbon and stainless steel sections with no keystone
section. Pittsburgh-Des Moines (PDM) was contracted to fabricate and erect the steel. The
Arch sections were shipped in three pieces from facilities in Pittsburgh and Warren, PA.
The walls traveled to the Arch site on gondola cars.18 Their stainless steel faces were set
against each other and protected by neoprene and wood buffers. When the section walls
arrived each was unloaded and placed under shelter on a 56’ x 125’ concrete platform. A
corrugated steel roof and canvas sides protected the sections as they were assembled.
Walt Mallory, the Pittsburgh Des Moines field superintendent, adapted a
conventional creeper crane to meet the unique requirements of the Arch.19 The moving
crane, known as a creeper derrick, traveled upward on the outside of the Arch. PDM
placed the first four sections of each leg from cranes on the ground but used two creeper
derricks, one on each leg of the Arch, to place the remaining sections.20
17 Brown, p 19. 18 Jensen, p 4. 19 Rennison, Charles E. “Ted”, unpublished internal document: Oral History Interview, Interviewed by Lead Park Technician Don Haake, Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, March 24, 25, 26 and May 6, 13, 14 1981, p 18. 20 Jensen, p 5.
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Fig. 5 Creeper Derricks and stabilizing strut
The creeping derricks were impressive
feats of engineering. The derricks traveled on two
12 WF beams and contained tool sheds, sanitary
facilities and communications equipment.21 Four
sections of the Arch could be placed before the
creeper derrick had to be moved. Each section took
a half an hour to be lifted from the ground and
placed. As the derricks climbed upward they had to
be leveled through the use of telescoping steel legs to compensate for the Arch’s greater
inward lean. 22
The sections were welded together by specially trained welders. Each welder had
to undergo a series of tests to be qualified to weld on-site. It was extremely important that
all be experts because welding would be the primary means of assembling the Arch.
Construction manager Ted Rennison recalls the assessment: “The tests were quite rigid;
there was a vertical and horizontal and overhead and all of these things that are required to
do a good job.”23 In a recorded history of the Arch’s construction, Rennison remarked that
only men accustomed to the confined spaces and intense heat could stand to weld on the
Arch’s interior. These men, he recalled, were usually veterans of oil and gas lines.24
On June 17, 1965, the Arch reached the height at which the stabilizing strut was
needed. A 225 ft long, 40 ft wide, and 14 ½ ft high strut was placed between the two legs.
Despite the load of the cranes and the massive strut, the Arch deflected only 5/8 of an
inch. Seeking to take advantage of the conspicuous bracing, Pittsburgh-Des Moines placed 21 Ibid. 22 Ibid. 23 Rennison, p 5. 24 Ibid.
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a sign with 12 foot high letters reading “PDM.”25 Immediately, the media took notice as
the National Park Service ordered the letters removed; advertising was restricted by
contractual agreement. PDM responded by taking the east facing letters down, but insisted
that the letters on the west city side were hard to reach, and left them up for over a
month.26 The NPS told the contractor that they would be heavily charged for “advertising
space seen by half a million people every day.”27 When PDM failed to respond, the
government deducted $225,000 from MacDonald’s pay, citing inappropriate use of federal
property by one of their subcontractors.28 The letters were promptly removed and
construction continued.
The local community anxiously anticipated the day the Arch would be finished.
Civic leaders chose the week of October 24, 1965 to dedicate the Arch but were uncertain
about the day and time.29 Some wanted to delay placing the last section until Saturday
morning to attract a larger crowd. But engineers worried about the sustained loads on the
Arch. Both legs stood rather precariously. On October 26th workers refused to work
believing another safety check was needed. Engineers insisted that the Arch structurally
safe though vulnerable to wind and earthquakes. The topping out crew returned to work.30
Engineers and civic leaders chose Thursday, October 28 at 10:00 a.m. because of
the cool early morning conditions. The St. Louis fire department came and sprayed water
on the south leg to counteract expansion from the sun’s heat. 700 feet of hose were used to
pump water onto the structure from 9:30 until the Arch was completed.31 Vice President
25 Brown, p 21 26 Ibid. 27 Ibid. 28 Ibid. 29 Brown, p 22. 30 Ibid. 31 Ibid.
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Hubert Humphrey watched from an overhead plane while Superintendent Leroy Brown
served as master of ceremonies. At 11:00 a.m., the final section of the Arch was placed.
By 2:00 p.m. the hydraulic jacks used for the placement of the last section were released.
The Arch supported itself under crown thrust.
The Gateway Arch is a 630 ft. tall
catenary Arch. Its base measures 630 feet from
the north to the south outer edge.32 A catenary
arch is the most structurally sound of all the
arches. In other arches the thrust forces tend to
spread the legs apart. But a catenary arch
transmits loads vertically through the arch’s legs
to its massive foundations.33
The 60-foot concrete foundations were prestressed with groups of steel tensioning
bars. After a period of about 7-10 days, the bars were post-tensioned in an exact sequence
specified by the engineers.34 A center hole hydraulic jack with a 100 ton capacity applied
a load of 71 tons per bar or a total load of 18,000 tons per leg. The bars had to be inclined
at two distinct angles because of the angle of inclination of each leg. The Arch was
secured to the foundation with 252 alloy-steel tensioning bars that extend 34 feet below
the top of the concrete foundation.35
32 Jensen, p 1. 33 Jensen, p 3. 34 Jensen, p 2. 35 Ibid.
Fig. 6 Last section being lifted into place
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Fig. 7 Reinforced concrete, outer and inner skin shown in cross section
Each leg of the arch is an equilateral
triangle in cross section with sides measuring 54
feet at the bottom and tapering to 17 feet at the
top. At ground level, the core space measures 40
feet and reduces to 15 ½ at the top. The Arch’s
outer skin is polished stainless steel and its inner
skin is 3/8” thick A-7 carbon steel.36 The space
between the outer and inner skin is filled with
reinforced concrete and prestressed up to an
above ground elevation of 300 feet. Beyond 300
feet, steel stiffeners are employed between outer and inner skin. The carbon steel stiffeners
are spot-welded to avoid the intense heat of arc welding that might wrinkle the skin when
it cools and contracts.37
The Arch’s inner and outer walls combine to form a composite structure that
transfers winds and gravity loads to the ground; the Arch has no “real” structural
skeleton.38 Engineers designed the Arch with an induced crown thrust. A two-foot gap was
expanded to eight before the final section could be placed. Hydraulic jacks exerted 100
tons of pressure against the two legs of the arch. When the load was released, a net
compressive force remained. The crown thrust minimizes tension in the Arch when it
deflects under a wind load. The structural engineering firm Severud, Elstad, Krueger and
Associates carried out wind tunnel testing on scaled models. The firm insists that the Arch
would deflect 18” in an east-west direction under a sustained wind load of 55 psf or the
equivalent of a 150 mph wind. 36 Ibid. 37 Jensen, p 1. 38 Jensen, p 2.
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The day the Arch was completed was bittersweet for some; civic leaders and park
officials had lost several dear friends. Luther Ely Smith, who had conceived the project,
hoping to restore the decaying St. Louis riverfront, died walking to work in April, 1951 at
the age of 77. 39 At the time of his death, the project remained a dream described only on
paper. Eero Saarinen, who conceived of the majestic Arch while playing with ribbon and
string two decades prior, died in 1961 from a brain tumor. At just 55 years, his life was
tragically short. Neither Smith nor Saarinen lived to see the Arch “rise majestically from a
small forest set on the edge of a great river.”40
The Arch's unique shape made it difficult to conceive of a transportation system
that would carry visitors to the top. The steep angle of the Arch above 300 feet and the
triangular cross section made a series of
conventional elevators impractical because a
waiting and mechanical rooms were
constrained by limited space. Eero Saarinen's
office needed a unique, unconventional
transportation solution. Eero Saarinen and his
partners called upon Dick Bowser, a self-
described second generation "elevator man.”41
39 Brown, p 15. 40 Capps, Michael, Eero Saarinen- Architect with a Vision, Arch History and Architectural Information, published on the NPS website at www.nps.gov/jnema 41 Moore, Bob, JNEM Historian, Dick Bowser and the Arch's Unique Tram System, www.stlouisarch.com
Fig 8. Dick Bowser, the inventor of the Arch’s Transportation system
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Bowser recalled, "The first question
[Saarinen's partners] asked me was did an elevator
have to travel vertically? I said I didn't think so. My
father built and installed a dumbwaiter that
transferred from one hatchway to another about
halfway up its travel. If they were interested, the
dumbwaiter was in a church building in Birmingham,
MI. It turned out that the building was within a mile
of their offices."42
Bowser was an unlikely candidate for the
difficult design work. He had no formal training and
had never graduated from college. But Bowser
worked for two weeks, day and night, to design a
system that met the NPS requirements. 3,500 people
had to be able to make it to the top in an 8-hour day
or 11,000 people in a 14-hour day.43
Saarinen provided Bowser with little but an
outline sketch of the Arch containing a rectangle at
the base and the word elevator. Bowser considered several designs but eliminated them
independently. “A combination of the elevator principle and the Ferris wheel principle
was developed into a train of capsules, and I had my solution,” Bowser recalled.44 Eight
capsules run independently on tracks in each leg of the Arch. The capsules rotate about
42 Moore, p 1. 43 Moore, p 2. 44 Ibid.
Fig 9. The capsules and track that take visitors to the top of the Arch
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155 degrees to remain vertical during the 3-4 minute ride to the top. Five people can sit
comfortably in each capsule yielding a capacity of 200-225 per hour. The trains have been
in operation for over 25 years. In that time, the capsules have traveled approximately
200,000 miles and have brought over 18 million passengers to the top of the Arch.45
Engineering makes the Gateway Arch a great monument. But a monument is more
than an object of adoration. The stone and steel engage visitors in a silent dialogue.
Inevitably, the dialogue is introspective because monuments are silent. Nonetheless, the
Washington Monument, the faces at Mt. Rushmore, and the Gateway Arch give the visitor
the opportunity to ask questions. And the inquisitive visitor is rewarded with renewed
understanding and awareness.
In the Museum of Westward Expansion,
underneath the green grass below the Gateway Arch, a
visitor experiences life on the western frontier. The story
of the American westward experience is told through the
objects, clothing, tools, and words of the people who
lived there."46 Thomas Jefferson stands in the middle
looking outward, bronzed with one hand on his hip, as if
admiring the frontier himself.
45 Ibid. 46 Capps, McElroy, Moore and Richard, p 23.
Fig 10. Thomas Jefferson in the Museum of Westward Expansion
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Fig 11. Meriwether Lewis
As the visitor walks away from Thomas Jefferson,
decade increments pass in concentric circles. "Great
paintings, quotations, and actual objects, such as boots,
hats guns, knives, beads and tobacco,” reveal
themselves.47 Beaver pelts remind the visitor of the
animal’s rapid decline. Musket and powder recall the
primary means of procuring foodstuffs. The tools of men
who traveled up rivers trading with Indians can be found.
Jefferson’s directive to Meriwether Lewis had
been: “In all your intercourse with the natives, treat them
in the most friendly and conciliatory manner which their own conduct will admit… make
them acquainted with our wish to be neighborly, friendly and useful to them.”48 The
natives permitted Lewis and Clark to trade with them and allowed the expedition to pass
upon their land. And the manner in which they greeted the trespassers was generally
friendly:
“Neither the Native Americans nor the mountain men threatened the vital interests of the other. Rather, there was much exchange between the two. In many ways, especially with the French traders, it was the white man who adopted the Native American way, not the other way around.”49
However, the tone of the first encounter would not be echoed through the ages.
The men who expanded the country westward would come to destroy the Native
American way of life that had transpired for generations.
47 Ibid. 48 Skarmeas, Nancy, Thomas Jefferson, “The Object of Your Mission” from a letter to Meriwether Lewis, Ideals Publications Incorporated, Nashville, Tennessee, 1998, p 89. 49 Capps, McElroy, Moore, Richard, p 22.
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The bison hunter was the most devastating to
the Plains Indians—a people who would have lived
nearby the location of the Arch. In 1800, millions of
bison moved easily through the American plains.
“When the herds moved, thunder rose from their
hooves.”50 But the bison hunter killed them
indiscriminately and the population declined rapidly.
The Plains Indians had depended entirely upon the
bison, using every part of the animal, including the
hair, skin, sinews, hooves, meat, muscle and fat.51 The
Plains Indians ceased to exist as a culture because their lives could not be sustained
without the animal.
The Jefferson Expansion Museum assists the observer who wishes to develop a
potent and historically accurate understanding of western expansion. The visitor is brought
into contact with the artifacts of U.S. history, but is offered no explanation or opinions;
displays are unnamed and without descriptions. The artifacts serve only to augment the
participant’s understanding and not to define it. In this way, the Jefferson Expansion
Museum continues the silent dialogue incipient above ground.
Each year thousands of visitors come to the Arch to be inspired and few leave
disappointed. They bring their children—whose senses are betrayed by the Arch’s
alarming scale. The children frolic on the green lawn under the Curve’s noontime shadow
and adults muse openly about the marvels of its construction. All the while, the monument
speaks silently about a land blanketed in dense forest whose bison moved easily through 50 Ibid. 51 Capps, McElroy, Moore, Richard, p 24.
Fig 12. The Arch rises majestically from the green memorial grounds
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the open parries. The astute recognize that a land and its people are ephemeral. The Arch’s
perilous and daring reach heavenward seems to affirm that, “Nothing is unchangeable but
the inherent and unalienable rights of man.”52 And every time we gaze at its glistening
silver skin, we are reminded that these rights must be afforded hard work and struggle.
One can never be certain that the Gateway Arch will stand 1000 years from now.
Even a massive concrete and steel structure is fragile in a world of deep uncertainty. But
triumphantly it reminds us of the great privileges of citizenship. In the dawn of evening,
the Arch reaches high to invoke the nobility of a struggle for freedom. And at daybreak, it
returns beautifully to earth, to remind us of our responsibility as citizens.
52 Ibid.
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