Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2018
Warning… this is more historical information than experience… and long!
On Thursday, 8/30, we drove to St. Louis to visit the Gateway Arch National Park which is actually near the starting point of the Lewis & Clark Expedition of 1804. Its name was changed from the original Jefferson National Expansion Memorial just this year. A ribbon cutting ceremony was recently held on July 3rd to re-open the renovated museum and modified park for easier access and multi-use. Though the changes to the park and museum cost $380 million and took five years to complete, the original arch took under 3 years to build and cost $13 million (only $77.5 million in today’s dollars).
We saw an impressive 35-minute film about the construction of the arch from concept to completion. Actual footage of the construction workers, equipment and processes were shown. The arch was built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States, and officially dedicated to “The People of the United States” in 1968 by President Lyndon Johnson. It’s amazing that not one life was lost during construction - even though 13 fatalities had been predicted! According to the film and pictures, no one was wearing harnesses or tied off to the structure even at the top. The completed arch is 630 feet tall and 630 feet wide at the base.
For you science/engineering enthusiasts:
The arch shape is considered a weighted cantenary because its legs are wider than its top section. The catenary arch is the most stable of all arches since "the thrust passes down through the legs and is absorbed in the foundations, whereas in other arches, the pressure tends to force the legs apart.”
The cross-sections of the arch's legs are equilateral triangles, narrowing from 54 feet (16 m) per side at the bases to 17 feet (5.2 m) per side at the top. The base of each leg at ground level had to have an engineering tolerance of 1⁄64 inch (0.40 mm) or the two legs would not meet at the top!
Back to everyone :-)
There is a beautiful sculptured mural near the museum depicting many aspects of the construction, including the placement of the final triangle of steel at the top where the two separately constructed legs met.
The ride up to the top takes 4 minutes, and back down takes 3 minutes, in a tiny 5-seated capsule. Quite cozy! (See pictures) On the Illinois side we could see the Mississippi River and the Gateway Geyser. Fun Facts I never knew… This geyser, which began operation in 1995, is the tallest water fountain in the United States and third tallest in the world, capable of spouting as high as 630 feet. Around the Gateway Geyser are four smaller fountains symbolizing four rivers, the Mississippi, Missouri, Meramec and Illinois. Each of the four small fountains can spout to 100 feet. On the Missouri side, we had a great view of Busch Stadium and the Old Courthouse where Dred Scott filed suit for his and his wife, Harriet, and their two daughters’ freedom in 1846. It was a sad moment in US history when in 1857, the case went before the US Supreme Court which decided against Dred Scott.
Dred Scott History Lesson:
… the U.S. Supreme Court on March 6, 1857, ruled (7–2) that a slave (Dred Scott) who had resided in a free state and territory (where slavery was prohibited) was not thereby entitled to his freedom; that African Americans were not and could never be citizens of the United States; and that the Missouri Compromise (1820), which had declared free all territories west of Missouri and north of latitude 36°30′, was unconstitutional. The decision added fuel to the sectional controversy and pushed the country closer to civil war.
Among constitutional scholars, Scott v. Sandford is widely considered the worst decision ever rendered by the Supreme Court. It has been cited in particular as the most egregious example in the court’s history of wrongly imposing a judicial solution on a political problem. (https://www.britannica.com/event/Dred-Scott-decision)
Also ~
The Dred Scott case remained the subject of noisy constitutional and historical debate and contributed to the divisions that helped lead to Abraham Lincoln’s election and the Civil War.
Dred Scott, along with several members of his family, was formally emancipated by his owner just three months after the Supreme Court denied them their freedom in the Dred Scott decision. (https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/dred-scott-case)
And finally ~
Dred Scott and his family stayed in St. Louis after his emancipation, and he found work as a porter in a local hotel. But after only a little more than a year of true freedom, Scott died from tuberculosis on September 17, 1858. (https://www.biography.com/people/dred-scott-9477240)
If we hadn’t had transmission problems, we couldn’t have stopped in St. Louis because there are no local harbors for transient boats. So, we were happy to take advantage of this unexpected opportunity.
UPDATE: We hope to finish repairs in the morning (Sat. 9/1) so we can be on our way. Where to… we’ll let you know when we get there!
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/gateway-arch-museum-st-louis-missouri/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateway_Arch
https://www.meprd.org/mmmp.html