When you drive into St. Louis from the east, the Gateway Arch is the first thing you see. Although I have seen it before and also seen many pictures of the arch and St. Louis, I was still surprised by it's size. Gateway Arch is the tallest monument in the US at 630 feet. It is taller than the Washington Monument and taller than Mount Rushmore.
Construction on the arch started on February 12, 1963 and the last section was put into place on October 28, 1965. There is a movie in the visitor center that shows the construction of the arch. It was amazing to watch the men working on the arch walking around at such high heights without safety harnesses. For more info about the arch visit http://www.nps.gov/jeff/.
Of course the most fun thing to do is to go to the top of the arch. To get to the top, you get into a very cozy pod that holds 5 people. We were fortunate from a size perspective to share a pod with 4th grade boys on a field trip both going up and coming down. Of the 5 seats in the pod, only one seat allowed an adult to sit up straight. Kevin and I both had to lean forward in our seats to keep our heads from hitting the ceiling. To deal with the curve, the pod straightens itself every few seconds. You feel like you are tilting sideways then you feel a click and you are straight again. The ride to the top takes 4 minutes and the ride down takes 3 minutes.
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