Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 16:54, 4 June 2008

The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial is located in St. Louis, Missouri near the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. It was designated as a National Memorial by Executive Order 7523, on December 21, 1935, and is maintained by the National Park Service (NPS).

The park was established to commemorate several historical events:

• the Louisiana Purchase, and the subsequent westward movement of American explorers and pioneers;
• the first civil government west of the Mississippi River;
• the debate over slavery raised by the Dred Scott case.

The memorial site consists of a 91-acre (37 ha) park along the Mississippi River on the site of the original city of St. Louis; the Old Courthouse, a former state and federal courthouse which saw the origins of the Dred Scott case; the 4,200 m² (45,000-sq.ft) Museum of Westward Expansion; and the Gateway Arch, an inverted steel catenary arch that has become the definitive icon of the city.

As the park entered the 21st century it is host to four million visitors each year, three quarters of whom enter the Arch or the Old Courthouse.

Components

The Gateway Arch

The Arch is known as the "Gateway to the West". Designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen and structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel, it stands 630 feet (192 m) tall, and is 630 feet (192 m) wide at its base. It is the tallest habitable structure in St. Louis (taller than One Metropolitan Square, the tallest building), and the second tallest in Missouri (behind One Kansas City Place in Kansas City), as well as the world's tallest monument.

The cross-sections of its legs are equilateral triangles, narrowing from 54 feet (16.5 m) per side at the base to 17 feet (5.2 m) at the top. Each wall consists of a stainless steel skin covering reinforced concrete from ground level to 300 feet (91 m), with carbon steel and rebar from 300 feet (91 m) to the peak. The interior of the Arch is hollow and contains a unique transport system leading to an observation deck at the top. The interior of the Arch also contains two emergency stairwells of 1076 steps each, in the event of a need to evacuate the Arch or if a problem develops with the tram system.

Security

Visitors pass through security checkpoints at each entrance to the Arch, before being allowed access to the visitor center. Security was increased as result of a 1997 Congressional mandate to establish a Counter-Terrorism Program at the park. The NPS used the increased funding to purchase magnetometers and x-ray equipment for visitor screening and 25 CCTV cameras scattered throughout the grounds of the memorial. During the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Arch was temporarily closed as a precaution.

Tram

Eero Saarinen died from a brain tumor four years before the Arch was completed; prior to his death he had decided to incorporate a power lift system to obviate the need to climb the 1000-plus stairs. But the shape of the arch would have made a standard elevator impossible. After approaching several elevator companies who failed to come up with a viable method, Saarinen hired college dropout and parking-lot elevator designer Richard Bowser to do the job. Skeptical city leaders gave Bowser only two weeks to submit a design, but he succeeded. By 1968 a unique tram system that combined an elevator cable lift system with gimbaled cars functionally similar to ferris wheel gondolas had been installed.

The tram is operated by the quasi-governmental Bi-State Development Agency under an agreement with the NPS.

From the visitor center one may move to either base (one on the north end and the other on the south end) of the Arch and enter the tramway much as one would enter an ordinary elevator, through narrow double doors. The north queue area includes displays which interpret the design and construction of the Gateway Arch; the south queue area includes displays about the St. Louis riverfront during the mid-19th century.

Passing through the doors, passengers in groups of five enter an egg-shaped compartment containing five seats and a flat floor. Because of the car shape, the compartments have sloped ceilings low enough to force taller riders to lean forward while seated (for this reason it's recommended that the tallest of the five passengers in the car sit in the center seat facing the door). Eight compartments are linked to form a train, meaning that both trains have a capacity of 40, and that 80 people can be transported at one time. These compartments individually retain an appropriate level by periodically rotating every 5 degrees, which allows them to maintain the correct orientation while the entire train follows curved tracks up one leg of the arch. The trip to the top of the Arch takes four minutes, and the trip down takes three minutes. The car doors have narrow windows, allowing passengers to see the interior stairways and structure of the Arch during the trip.

On July 21, 2007, several hundred people were trapped in the trams or at the top of the Arch after an electrical problem occurred with the tram system. All were returned to the ground either by being taken down stairs to a service elevator, or by waiting for power to be restored. A second electrical problem caused one tram to be taken out of service the following day.

Observation area

Near the top of the arch, the rider exits the compartment and climbs a slight grade to enter the arched observation area. Small windows, almost invisible from the ground, allow views across the Mississippi River and southern Illinois with its prominent Mississippian culture mounds to the east at Cahokia, and the City of Saint Louis and St. Louis County to the west beyond the city. On a clear day, one can see up to thirty miles (48 km).

Mathematics of the Arch

The geometric form of the Arch was set by mathematical equations provided to Saarinen by Dr. Hannskarl Bandel. Bruce Detmers and other architects expressed the geometric form in blueprints with this equation:

${\displaystyle y=A\left(\cosh {\frac {x}{L}}C-1\right),}$

or, equivalently

${\displaystyle x={\frac {L}{C}}\cosh ^{-1}\left(1+{\frac {y}{A}}\right),}$

where

${\displaystyle A={\frac {f_{c}}{{\frac {Q_{b}}{Q_{t}}}-1}}=68.7672}$

${\displaystyle C=\cosh ^{-1}{\frac {Q_{b}}{Q_{t}}}=3.0022}$

${\displaystyle f_{c}={\mbox{maximum height of centroid (in feet)}}=625.0925}$

${\displaystyle Q_{b}={\mbox{maximum cross sectional area of arch at base (in sq. feet)}}=1262.6651}$

${\displaystyle Q_{t}={\mbox{minimum cross sectional area of arch at top (in sq. feet)}}=125.1406}$

${\displaystyle L={\mbox{half width of centroid at the base (in feet)}}=299.2239}$

This hyperbolic cosine function describes the shape of a catenary. A chain that supports only its own weight forms a catenary; in this configuration, the chain is strictly in tension. An inverted catenary arch that supports only its own weight is strictly in compression, with no shear. The shape is therefore ideal.

The base of each leg at ground level had an engineering tolerance of one sixty-fourth of an inch or the two legs would not meet at the top.

During construction, both legs were built up simultaneously. When the time came to connect both legs together at the apex, thermal expansion of the sunward facing south leg prevented it from aligning precisely with the north leg. This alignment problem was solved when the Saint Louis City Fire Department sprayed the south leg with water from firehoses until it had cooled to the point where it aligned with the north leg.

Stunts

Eleven light aircraft have been successfully piloted beneath the arch, the first on 22 June 1966, when the arch had been completed for less than a year.

In 1980 Kenneth Swyers tried to parachute onto the span of the Gateway Arch, planning to jump back off to land on the ground below. Instead, he slid all the way down one leg to his death. The pilot, Richard Skurat, had his pilot certificate suspended for 90 days.

In 1984, David Adcock of Houston, Texas, began to scale the arch by means of suction cups on his hands and feet, but he was talked out of continuing after having climbed only 20 feet (6.1 m). The next day he successfully scaled the nearby 21-story Equitable Building in downtown St. Louis.

On 14 September 1992 it was rumored that John C. Vincent of New Orleans successfully scaled the outside of the Arch with suction cups during the night, and performed a BASE jump from the top with a parachute at 7 a.m. No evidence surfaced to support his claim, and it was speculated by Rangers at the Arch that Vincent was lowered from a helicopter onto the top of the Arch, from which he parachuted. He spent three months in jail for the stunt.

Old Courthouse

The Old Courthouse is built on land originally deeded by St. Louis founder Auguste Chouteau. It marks the location over which the arch reaches. Its dome was built during the American Civil War and is similar to the dome on the United States Capitol which was also built during the Civil War. It was the site of the local trials in the Dred Scott case.

The courthouse is the only portion of the memorial west of I-70. To the west of the Courthouse is a Greenway between Market and Chestnut Streets which is only interrupted by the Civil Courts Building which features a pyramid model of the Mausoleum of Maussollos (which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) on its roof. When Civil Courts building was built in the 1920s the Chouteau family sued to regain the property belonging the Old Courthouse because it had been deeded in perpetuity to be a courthouse.

Museum of Westward Expansion

Underneath the Arch is a visitor center, entered from a descending outdoor ramp starting at either base. Within the center is the Museum of Westward Expansion, exhibits on the history of the St. Louis riverfront, and tram loading and unloading areas. Tucker Theater, finished in 1968 and renovated 30 years later, has about 285 seats and shows a documentary (Monument to the Dream) on the Arch's construction. Odyssey Theater, designed by Cox/Croslin Architects was completed in 1993 and has 255 seats. It was the first 70 mm film theater to be located on National Park Service grounds and operated by the NPS. The theater runs films from a rotating play list. Also located in the visitor center are retail operations run by the Jefferson National Parks Association, a not-for-profit partner.

History

1930s

The memorial was developed largely through the efforts of St. Louis civic booster Luther Ely Smith who first pitched the idea in 1933, was the long-term chairman of the committee that selected the area and persuaded Franklin Roosevelt in 1935 to make it a national park after St. Louis passed a bond issue to begin building it, and who partially financed the 1947 architectural contest that selected the Arch.

In the early 1930s the United States began looking for a suitable memorial for Thomas Jefferson (the Washington Monument and the newly built Lincoln Memorial were the only large Presidential memorials at the time).

Shortly after Thanksgiving in 1933 Smith who had been on the commission to build the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park in Indiana, was returning via train when he noticed the poor condition or the original platted location of St. Louis along the Mississippi. He thought that the memorial to Jefferson should be on the actual location that was symbolic of one of Jefferson's greatest triumphs -- the Louisiana Purchase.

The originally platted area of St. Louis included:

• Site of the Spanish capital of Louisiana (New Spain) (basically the entire Louisiana Purchase area north of Louisiana from the city's founding in 1764 until it was turned .
• Site of the Battle of Saint Louis, the only battle west of the Mississippi River in the American Revolutionary War
• Site of the Three Flags Day ceremony in 1804 in which Spain turned over Louisiana to France for less than 24 hour before it was turned over to the United States clearing the way for Lewis and Clark to legally begin their exploration (which Spain had specifically prohibited)
• Site of the first capital of Upper Louisiana for the United States

Almost all of the historic buildings associated with this period had been replaced by newer buildings. His idea was to raze all of the buildings in the original St. Louis platted area and replace it with a park with "a central feature, a shaft, a building, an arch, or something which would symbolize American culture and civilization."

Smith pitched the idea to Bernard Dickmann who quickly assembled a meeting of St. Louis civic leaders on December 15, 1933 at the Jefferson Hotel and they endorsed the plan and Smith became chairman of what would become the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association (a position he would hold until 1949 with a one-year exception).

The Commission then defined the area, got cost estimates of $30 million to buy the land, clear the buildings and erect a park and monument. With promises from the federal government (via the United States Territorial Expansion Memorial Commission) to join if the City of St. Louis could raise money.

The area to be included in the park was the Eads Bridge/Washington Avenue on the north and Poplar Street on the south, the Mississippi River on the east Third Street (now I-70) on the west plus the Old Courthouse just west of Third Street (the Courthouse was actually added in 1940).

The only building in this area not included was the Old Cathedral, which is on the site of St. Louis first church and was opposite the home of St. Louis founder Auguste Chouteau. The founders of the city were buried in its graveyard (but were moved in 1849 to Bellefontaine Cemetery during a cholera outbreak).

Taking away 40 blocks in the center of St. Louis was bitterly fought by some sources -- particularly the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

On September 10, 1935, the voters of St. Louis approved a $7.5 million bond issue to buy the property.

The buildings were bought for $7 million by the federal government via Eminent domain and was subject to considerable litigation but were ultimately bought at 131.99 percent of assessed valuation.

Roosevelt inspected the memorial area on October 14, 1936 during the dedication of the St. Louis Soldiers Memorial . Included in the party was then Senator Harry S. Truman.

1940s

The land was to be cleared by 1942. Among the buildings razed was the "Old Rock House" 1818 home of fur trader Manuel Lisa (now occupied by the stairs on the north side of the Arch) and the 1819 home of original St. Louis pioneer Jean Pierre Chouteau at First and Washington.

The architectural competition for a monument was delayed by World War II. Interest in the monument was fed after the war as it was to be the first big monument in the post-World War II era.

The estimated cost of the competition was $225,000 and Smith personally donated $40,000. Civic leaders held the nation-wide competition in 1947 to select a design for the main portion of the Memorial space.

Architect Eero Saarinen won this competition with plans for a 590-foot (180-metre) catenary arch to be placed on the banks of the Mississippi River. However, these plans were modified over the next 15 years, placing the arch on higher ground and adding 40 feet (12 m) in height and width.

The central architectural feature at the base of the arch is the Old Courthouse, which was once the tallest building in Missouri and has a dome similar to the United States Capitol and was placed on the building during the American Civil War at the same time as the U.S. Capitol.

Saarinen developed the shape with the help of architectural engineer Hannskarl Bandel. It is not a pure inverted catenary. Saarinen preferred a shape that was slightly elongated and thinner towards the top, a shape that produces a subtle soaring effect, and transfers more of the structure's weight downward rather than outward at the base.

When Saarinen won the competition, the official notification was sent to "E. Saarinen", thinking it to be the architect's father Eliel Saarinen, who had also submitted an entry. The family celebrated with a bottle of champagne, and two hours later an embarrassed official called to say the winner was, in fact, the younger Saarinen. The elder Saarinen then broke out a second bottle of champagne to celebrate his son's success.

Among the five finalists was local St. Louis architect Harris Armstrong.

1950s

Land for the memorial was formally dedicated on June 10, 1950 by Harry S. Truman. However the Korean War began and the project was put on hold.

On June 23, 1959, work begins on covering railroad tracks that cut across the memorial grounds.

1960s

On February 11, 1961 excavation began.

On September 1, 1961 Saarinen died.

On February 12, 1963 the first stainless steel triangle that forms the first section of the arch was set in place on the south leg.

On October 28, 1965 it was completed, costing approximately US$15 million to build. Along with all other historical areas of the National Park Service, the memorial was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. Vice President Hubert Humphrey and Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall dedicated the Arch on May 25, 1968.

1980s

In 1984, Congress authorized the enlargement of the Memorial to include up to 100 acres (0.4 km) on the east bank of the Mississippi River in East St. Louis, Illinois. Funds were authorized to begin land acquisition, but Congress placed a moratorium upon NPS land acquisitions in fiscal year 1998. The moratorium continued into the 21st century, with expansion becoming less likely because of the construction of a riverboat gambling facility and related amenities.

1990s

During the Great Flood of 1993, Mississippi flood waters reached half way up the Grand Staircase on the east.

In 1999, the Arch tram queue areas were completely renovated at a cost of approximately $2.2 million.

In 1999 the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site in St. Louis County, Missouri was brought under the Superintendent of the Memorial jurisdiction.

2000s

The arch was featured on the Missouri state quarter in 2003.

In 2007 St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and former Missouri Senator John Danforth asked the National Park Service to create a more "active" use of the grounds of the memorial and model it on Millennium Park in Chicago including the possibility of an amphitheater, cafes and restaurants, fountains, bicycle rentals, sculptures and an aquarium.. The National Park Service is currently cool to the plan noting that the only other overt development pressure on National Park property has been at the Jackson Hole Airport in Grand Teton National Park

The Memorial is separated from the rest of Downtown St. Louis by a sunken section of I-70. The city is considering a $90 million proposal to cover the interstate. The NPS, as part of their Centennial Initiative celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2016, is considering a plan to complete Saarinen's original master plan. The intention is to build the Gateway Arch Connector to link the Old Courthouse with the grounds of the Arch.

Additional photographs

• Lower north tram queue area
• The Arch, from the west
• The sign at the top of the observation deck.
• The St. Louis Arch as seen from the lawn.
• As seen from Laclede's Landing
• Arch at dawn
• The Old Cathedral as viewed from top of Arch
• North Tram entrance in March 2005.
• At night as seen from Illinois

External links

• Official NPS website: Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
  • The memorial's 2000-2005 Strategic Plan (in Microsoft Word format)
• Commemorative Events at Jefferson National Expansion Memorial for the 150th Anniversary of the Dred Scott Decision
• Website for “The Gateway Arch: A Reflection of America”, a documentary narrated by Kevin Kline and directed by award winning documentarians Scott Huegerich and Bob Miano of Civil Pictures.
• Gateway Arch tourism site, run by the Bi-State Development Agency
• Jefferson National Parks Association, a park partner which administers the Museum Store and the Levee Mercantile Store
• "Gateway Arch Construction photographs". University of Missouri–St. Louis.
• 3D model of the Gateway Arch for use in Google Earth
• A SketchUp model of the Gateway Arch that can be viewed in Google Earth or Google SketchUp.
• St. Louis math teacher William V. Thayer's web pages on arch mathematics
• Web page for the equations of the Arch on the official website of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
• The Old Courthouse in St. Louis: Yesterday and Today, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
• 1980 Darwin Award
• The National Parks: Index 2001–2003. Washington: U.S. Department of the Interior.
• Arch timeline from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• Gateway Arch live webcam

38°37′29″N 90°11′06″W / 38.62460°N 90.18497°W / 38.62460; -90.18497

References

1. "Jefferson National Expansion Memorial" by Sándor Kabai and János Tóth, The Wolfram Demonstrations Project.
2. Weisstein, Eric W. "Catenary". MathWorld.
3. ^ Jefferson National Expansion Memorial: Administrative History (Chapter 13)
4. Jump from Terrifying Heights
   Article on Stuffmagazine.com
5. Luther Ely Smith: Founder of a Memorial - The Museum Gazette - nps.gov - Retrieved January 11, 2008
6. Editorial - Jefferson City Daily Capital News - June 24, 1939
7. St. Louis Site Obtained For Jefferson Memorial - UP Article via Hammond Times - June 22, 1939 (available on newspaperarchive.com)
8. 225,00 See Roosevelt in St. Louis - AP Article via Moberly Monitor-Index - October 14, 1936
9. St. Louis Landmarks - geneaologyinstlouis.accessgenealogy.com - Retrieved January 11, 2008
10. Danforth Study Says Hopes for Future of Riverfront Lie in Arch Grounds Mayor Slay Seeks Recommendations on Next Step - Mayor's Office Press Releases - August 29, 2007
11. City leaders pitch local control of Arch grounds - St. Louis Post Dispatch - August 29, 2007
12. Bomar, Mary A. (August 2007). "Summary of Park Centennial Strategies" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved 2008-02-15.

• Nation Register of Historic Places - Nomination Forms
  • "Gateway Arch" (PDF). Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  • "Jefferson National Expansion Memorial" (PDF). Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved 2008-05-30.

• IUCN Category V
• 1935 establishments
• 1965 architecture
• Arches and vaults
• Buildings and monuments honoring American Presidents
• Buildings and structures in St. Louis, Missouri
• Eero Saarinen structures
• Lewis and Clark Expedition
• National Historic Landmarks in Missouri
• National Memorials of the United States
• Parks in St. Louis
• Parks on the Mississippi River
• Thomas Jefferson
• Modernist architecture
• American architecture