Downtown is where the Gateway Arch National Park is. The grounds around the Arch have great views of the city to the West and the Mississippi River to the East.
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The
Arch was built between 1963 and 1965 and stands 630 feet tall and 630
feet wide at its base. 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 with exhibits on the history
of the St. Louis riverfront.
There are even speakers in the museum.
A unique tram ride takes visitors to the top of the Arch for an
interesting view of the city. Wandering around the grounds and the
museum are free, but the tram ride has a fee of $10/adult or $5/child
and the theatre shows are $4 and $2 respectively. But the tram is
definately not for the claustrophobic!
The grounds around the Arch are beautiful, too.
Another interesting way to view the city scape is by a replica steamboat cruise.
There is a road that runs along the Missouri River at the base of these Arch steps, but we frequently have periods of high flooding. Usually not as bad as shown here in the floods of 1993, but enough that there are flood walls that have to be closed often. Note the flags in the water--that's the other side of the road. The pedestrians are standing about half way up the steps from the road. That's quite a bit of flooding!
This
is a view of the city from the windows in the top of the Arch before
the old Busch stadium was torn down and the new Busch stadium was built.
To the left of the stadium is Highway 40/64. The new stadium comes just
to the north of the highway. At the bottom right of the picture is the
old courthouse with Kenner plaza behind it. The new court house sits a
few blocks west.
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