Travels with Marty
Continuing down the Amtrak line from Springfield, I slowly made my way across sleepy rural Illinois, to finally cross the great Mississippi River, into Missouri, arriving at the "Gateway to the West."
Hey, I'm at the base of the arch! The excitement came over me. It's an odd structure to be sure. It's like having some park sculpture made 20 times larger than it should be. It sits along the Mississippi river, just east of downtown St. Louis. From it, you have a grand view of the city to the west.
I'm at the top taking a picture of one of the bases. You can see the river at left.
People go up this thing in these custom-made circlular evavator pods. They are designed to stay upright while the angle of arch changes. They are quite small and look like an retro space capsule, like something a James Bond villian would make his escape.
Left is the observation deck. Notice the odd positioning one performs to look out the window. Right: a look out the window shows a barge on the Mississippi.
A closeup shot of the arch. It's all stainless steel, with many attempts at scratched-in graffiti!
It's a very simple and essential construct. A single elemental shape, made of undecorated steel. Before I visited, I didn't know it was along the river, or at the edge of downtown St. Louis.
Across the river in Illinois, is just empty forest preserve. You'd think they would have developed condos there. What a view they would have.
My hotel was just across the highway from the arch. Here is a view of my hotel from the arch. Next to it, is a view of me and the arch from my hotel!