I took my sister there this past Sunday and it was pretty busy. We had about an hour wait just for the tram ride to the top.

If it is, that's great. Hopefully the visitors get out and explore the rest of the city too.

I went to the arch back in May, took a friend from Hong Kong. It was quite busy.

Yeah it is pretty busy, have returned from there twice recently after seeing the HUGE crowds.

That's exactly why we need the Arch connector and a decent streetscape and good shops and restaurants near the Arch grounds. I'm sure that the Landing benefits from all the tourists, but imagine if there were some good cafes in the ground floor of buildings on Memorial Drive - overlooking the Arch.

There is article on CNN.COM under the travel section, Summer Tourism Holding Up Well, that claims tourism is "exceptionally strong in New York, Atlanta, St. Louis, and San Francisco."

I went to the Arch on Saturday and it was insane. 30+ minute wait just to get inside and then once we were inside it was a madhouse.



It would be nice if they had a small deli or something down there. The avg wait is probably 2 hours and the food selection is very limited.

Isn't it time we put some small scale development on the Arch grounds? I know, its a National Park and all that, but what about a small plaza, with permament, tastefully designed cafes or refreshment stands, a bit of running water, some shaded seating. There could be a kiosk where you buy a line ticket to get into the Arch. A visitor orientation center. A riverfront history display. Some small garden areas, or at least some flowers somewhere. If everything were kept small scale, well designed, unobtrusive, I think it would fit in quite well. The Arch is spectacular, and can stand on its own, but I think we could make its setting a little more people friendly.

There is an article that is showing up online everywhere today about the 40th birthday of the Arch. It is on CNN.com and Yahoo, etc.



Happy Birthday Arch!

This was taken this morning by a woman I work with. Thought I'd share it with everyone. The Arch sure looks great for a 40 year old. Happy Birthday!

Wow, nice shot! Of course, its pretty hard to take a bad photo of the Arch!

CNN.com



http://www.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/10/28/st ... index.html



St. Louis' Gateway Arch turns 40



St. Louis' famed Gateway Arch was completed in 1965.



Friday, October 28, 2005; Posted: 3:04 p.m. EDT (19:04 GMT)



ST. LOUIS, Missouri (AP) -- When architect Eero Saarinen was creating the design of this city's famed Gateway Arch, he constructed his first model out of pipe cleaners.



A long way from its humble beginnings, the shimmering steel Arch celebrated its 40th anniversary Friday.



The original builders autographed posters of the monument as they answered questions from visitors, and an exhibit on Saarinen opened in the museum beneath the Arch. Book signings were held for an anniversary publication, "The Gateway Arch, An Architectural Dream."



Schoolchildren who had never seen the Arch came for the first time.



"Well, 40 years," said a silver-haired Susan Saarinen of Golden, Colorado, daughter of the late architect, who last saw the Arch at age 20. "Not very much time compared with the pyramids, but the last time I was here I had blonde hair and computer-aided design didn't exist."



The idea for a memorial in St. Louis began in 1933 with lawyer Luther Ely Smith, who was looking for a way to beautify the city's run-down riverfront, the first glimpse many visitors got of St. Louis.



Although work was done to secure and clear 90 acres, the idea for a memorial was not revitalized until two years after World War II.



Saarinen created a design that would mark President Thomas Jefferson's role in the nation's westward expansion (Jefferson signed the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which doubled the size of the United States) and honor the 19th century migration of hundreds of thousands of people to the West at a time when St. Louis was the last major city before the frontier.



Saarinen recounted in a 1948 newspaper article how he came up with the Arch's design by thinking about how earlier memorials to "our three greatest men" -- Jefferson, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln -- each had a distinct geometric shape.



He began to envision a dome with a design more open than the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, perhaps one that touched the ground at three points.



"We tried it in a very crude way; the only things we could find to make it with were some pipe cleaners. But three legs did not seem to fit in the plan, so we tried it with two legs, like a big arch."



The design competition that Saarinen's team entered in 1947-48 had 172 submissions, including one from his father, the well-known architect Eliel Saarinen. Eero was just 38 and his father's reputation far surpassed his own at the time.



When a Saarinen advanced in the competition, Eliel received a telegram congratulating him and the family broke out a bottle of champagne.



"Two hours later the family received a phone call from an embarrassed competition official," Eero's daughter, Susan Saarinen, Susan Saarinen said in the new book. It was young Eero, and not his father, who had a chance to win. "Eliel, a very proud father, broke out a second bottle of champagne" to toast his son.



Eero Saarinen died in 1961, before the Arch's construction from 1963 to 1965. The new exhibit runs through July 16.



Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

They did a thing on NPR too.

It’s a crime that this thread hasn’t been touched in nearly 20 YEARS!! Show the arch some love urbanist.

Here is a fun fact that I estimated today…
Not until roughly 2166, the Arch’s 201st birthday, will the Arch have been in St. Louis “a majority of” St. Louis’s history.

Well, the final Jeopardy today asked about legs 3630 feet apart and a monument 630 feel tall .... None of the three knew it.  Two guessed the Eiffel Tower (would they really represent that in feet?) and the other guessed one of the status of Jesus (do any of them have their legs so far apart!)  I was disappointed they didn't think of our glorious Arch.

From Arches National Park Facebook page:

^ would be cool to do a temporary swap. Delicate Arch down by the riverfront would be pretty neat.

I took the family to the Gateway Arch on Sunday. It was awesome. The crowds were great. The grass was great, thick and perfect for laying down for a picnic or photos. I parked on the Landing. It was empty. No life whatsoever. I was sad to see it like that. I know residential and office is the future, but that place screams bustling music, bar and restaurant district to me. It was a great entertainment district, uniquely St. Louis, at one time. I know many feel that time has passed I guess. It would be cool if visitors could pour into the Landing for meals, unique STL items, fun shops and some drinks. In any event, walked in from the North. It was deserted there, quiet and peaceful. Not many people at all until you get to the Arch. It was very crowded there, since most enter from the Old Courthouse. My big gripe, paid over $100 for like 10 min. up there. I never recall a time limit. I just got settled in and they told us we had to go. That was disappointing. I understand they have to run a lot of people through there, but to me the cost should be $10-$15 max. The security gates were also different, which I am all for. Otherwise, great experience. 

Glaring needs: 
-How in the hell does that area not have street retail, food trucks, vendors, etc. There was nothing on a very busy Sunday. This is a huge lost opportunity. Also, not many riverboats any longer. There needs to be more cruise options. I also long for the McDonalds riverboat. I know that is a common request, but that was part of the Arch experience when I was a kid. 
The area should be bustling with street retail down on LKS BLVD. There should be fun weirdos juggling, dressed like historical figures and street performers. I am not sure if that is legal, but it would add to the coolness of the experience. It was great, but could be so much more IMO. 

^It's been a death spiral since '93, more or less. The flood damaged a lot, and washed away two attractions that were never replaced. The city rebuilt the street and to an extent the levy, but apparently utility hookups cost extra. (I guess a lot extra.) Yes, we really need some riverfront activation. The fact that it's such a mess is an embarrassment. I understand quite well that the strong brown god has seasonal rages destroying much and reminding us of that which we choose to forget, but . . . maybe if we paid a little respect we'd get a reward in return. He can be so much more than just a somewhat unreliable purveyor of commerce, and he's in our blood. We really do need to do something. For crying out loud, the river is in all our iconography, all our mythology. It is the reason we're here. We really, really need to do better. Yes.

Wasn't ton of money spent to raise LKS with the express intent of making it less prone to flooding so it could be filled with street retail, food trucks, vendors, etc.? 

-RBB

Street vendors at LKS Blvd come back in May and stay until about October.

Yes it was raised to reduce the amount of days it’s flooded but not completely eliminate the flooding

Opening the flood gate at Carr Street would lead to a noticeable increase in cyclist traffic on LKS

April 2024 was the highest April for Arch Attendance since April 2001. After 2.42M visitors in 2023, it's running ahead of that pace so far in 2024

March 2024 was the highest March since 1999