The Gateway Arch is 630 feet of stainless steel bent into a perfect curve over the Mississippi. It is the tallest monument in the United States, and it is completely mad.
The Gateway Arch
Built as the gateway to the west, this 630-foot monument on the St Louis riverfront is the tallest in the United States, and the stainless steel curve is a genuine sight to behold.
It is the centrepiece of what is now Gateway Arch National Park, along with the museum at the base of the Arch and the Old Courthouse a short walk away.
A brief history
In 1935 it was decided to build a monument to nineteenth-century westward expansion on the St Louis riverfront. Land was bought and 40 city blocks of homes and businesses were cleared, but the Second World War stopped any progress before a brick was laid.
In 1947 a group of St Louis citizens ran a nationwide competition for a design. The Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen won it. His other work includes the TWA Flight Center at New York’s JFK, the Kresge Auditorium and chapel at MIT, and Dulles airport outside Washington.
Construction began in 1963 and the two legs met at the top in 1965. Saarinen never saw it. He died in 1961, six years after winning the competition and two years before the first section went up. A tram was threaded into the north leg, and the public first rode to the top in July 1967. The whole thing cost $13 million.
Getting to the top
On a summer’s day, with both trams running, as many as 6,400 people can reach the top. When you fold yourself into one of the tram cars (read: a tiny pod that ratchets and tilts to follow the curve of the Arch) you may well wonder if you have stepped onto the set of 2001: A Space Odyssey. As I said, the thing is mad.
On a clear day the view runs about thirty miles. Do not be alarmed if you feel the Arch move. It is built to sway up to 18 inches in a high wind and to ride out an earthquake. Ground level to the viewing deck and back takes about 45 minutes, most of it spent queuing and gawping.
Visiting today
The Arch had a major overhaul that finished in 2018. The old Jefferson National Expansion Memorial became Gateway Arch National Park, one of the smallest in the country, and the Museum of Westward Expansion at the base was rebuilt as a larger, brighter museum. The grounds were stitched back to downtown across a landscaped bridge over the sunken motorway that had cut the monument off from the city for decades.
The last piece took until 2025. The Old Courthouse, a short walk from the Arch, reopened in May 2025 after a $27.5 million restoration, the final phase of the $380 million CityArchRiver project. This is the building where Dred and Harriet Scott first sued for their freedom, and where Virginia Minor’s fight for a woman’s right to vote began, and the new galleries put those stories front and centre. It also got the first lift in its history, so the upper floors are now within everyone’s reach. The Arch itself turned 60 the same year.
A couple of practical notes. Tram tickets are timed and best booked online before you go, especially in summer. The museum is free; the tram to the top is not. And the old TWA terminal that Saarinen built at JFK, mentioned above, is now a hotel, which is the sort of second life most airport buildings never get.
Key facts
- Height: 630 feet (192 m), the tallest monument in the US and the tallest arch in the world
- Architect: Eero Saarinen, who won the competition in 1947 and died before it was built
- Built: 1963 to 1965; open to the top from July 1967
- Sway: designed to move up to 18 inches in a high wind
- Status: Gateway Arch National Park since 2018 (formerly the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial)
First written in 2004, updated 2026.