Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
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Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, +1 314 655-1700, [16]. A large park located along the Mississippi River facing downtown St. Louis, with plenty of big lawns, wood areas, and a few ponds. Gateway Arch, +1 877-982-1410, [17] - 9AM-6PM daily, (Summer 8AM-10PM). Designed by Eero Saarinen, it's the world's tallest national monument, built to be a symbolic gateway to the west. The icon of the city, the Arch is in the Jefferson Expansion National Memorial Park by the Riverfront. You can ride a unique elevator - essentially it's a cross between a cable railway and a ferris wheel - up to the top. There is also an innovative historical museum under the Arch. Don't miss the movie, "Monument to the Dream," about the building of the Arch--it is an exceptionally well-made and memorable tribute to how a vision was made tangible. The Arch was designed as an inverted catenary curve (a shape similar to a parabola) scaled from 21 inches of string held 7 inches apart. Its foundation is anchored 60 feet underground. Museum of Westward Expansion, underneath the Gateway Arch, +1 314 655-1700, [18]. Old Courthouse, [19]. The site of the historic Dred Scott slavery case which was one of the seeds of the Civil War. Old Cathedral, 209 Walnut St, +1 314 231-3250, [20]. The first cathedral built west of the Mississippi River.
