Missouri
Gateway Arch in St. Louis
March 2015
The Gateway Arch rises 630 feet (192 m) above the west bank of the Mississippi River in St. Louis and spans the same distance between its legs. Designed by Finnish American architect Eero Saarinen, the monument follows an inverted catenary curve. Its stainless-steel outer skin and carbon-steel inner skin form a load-bearing composite structure, reinforced with concrete in the lower sections. It is the tallest human-built monument in the United States.
Saarinen’s design was selected through a national architectural competition held in 1947–1948. Construction began on February 12, 1963, and the final section was installed on October 28, 1965. The Arch commemorates St. Louis’s historic role as the “Gateway to the West” and the broader history of United States westward expansion. Current National Park Service interpretation addresses this history through multiple perspectives, including exploration and settlement as well as conquest and displacement.
The Gateway Arch and its surrounding designed landscape were designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987.
Photograph-Date and Current Context
When these photographs were taken in 2015, the site was officially named Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Congress redesignated it Gateway Arch National Park in 2018.
