Gateway Arch United States

Legendary

Standing 630-feet tall, it’s the tallest arch in the world.

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The ride to the top isn't an elevator. It isn't quite a Ferris wheel either. It's both at once.

Each leg of the arch curves, so a normal elevator would tip passengers sideways. Engineers built small capsules that rotate as they climb, keeping everyone upright the whole way.

Eight capsules link together into a train that carries 40 people. The trip takes about four minutes each way.

The arch stands 630 feet tall on the bank of the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri. It's also exactly 630 feet wide at the base, so its overall shape fits inside a perfect square.

It's the tallest monument built by humans anywhere in the United States. It stands 75 feet taller than the Washington Monument and more than twice the height of the Statue of Liberty.

The shape isn't a random curve. It's called a catenary, the shape a chain makes when you hold both ends and let it hang loose, then flip it upside down.

That shape is unusually strong. The arch is built to handle earthquakes and heavy winds, with foundations sunk 60 feet into the ground.

The idea started back in 1933, when a St. Louis civic leader wanted a monument on the run-down riverfront. A nationwide design contest was held in 1947.

A Finnish-American architect named Eero Saarinen won with his arch design. He kept refining it, eventually raising the height from about 509 feet to 630.

Saarinen never saw it finished. He died in 1961, two years before construction even began.

Work started in February 1963 and the last piece was fitted on October 28, 1965. The trams opened to visitors in 1967.

The arch was built to mark St. Louis as the starting point for people heading west across North America in the 1800s. That's why it's often called the Gateway to the West.

Ride the tram to the observation deck and look through the small windows at the city and river far below. Visit the museum beneath the arch, built entirely underground so nothing blocks the view. Walk two blocks to the Old Courthouse, where Dred Scott, an enslaved man, sued for his freedom in the 1840s and 1850s.