The Gateway Arch

On May 25, 1968, Vice President Herbert Humphrey dedicated the nation’s tallest monument, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis Missouri.  The arch soars at 630 feet above the Mississippi River and is part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial which honors Thomas Jefferson, the Louisiana Purchase and the pioneers who settled the West.  
 
This stainless-steel arch was designed by Eero Saarinen a Finnish-American Architect, and Hannskarl Bandel a German-American engineer.  It stand 75 feet taller than the Washington Monument and more than twice as tall as the Statue of Liberty.  
Construction began in 1963 and was completed in 1965.
 
St. Louis which started as a French fur trading post in 1764, became part of the United States in 1803 when President Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory from France.  The next year Lewis and Clark lead an expedition to the Pacific Ocean from the St. Louis area.  The town became a “gateway to the West” for settlers as well as a steamship port and railroad center.  The arch has come to represent the spirit of a nation always ready to take on the next frontier.