Bill's Aviation Log

Well, if you are in St. Louis, of course you have to go and see the Gateway Arch. So this morning we walked over to the Arch. I had bought tickets in advance online. I bought the combo tickets which included the underground museum, the ride to the top of the Arch and then a Mississippi river tour on a boat.

The museum -- underground below the Arch -- is outstanding. We started off by seeing a very interesting 45 minute movie on the designing, enginineering and building of the Arch. Then we toured the museum.

This is a model of St. Louis as it was during the steamboat days. As you can see, they would pull up right onto the sloped shore.

A nicely-done wall mural recognizing the designers and builders of the Arch.

In late 1933, St. Louis lawyer Luther Ely Smith, (inside the arch, left side at top) appalled at the dilapidated St. Louis riverfront district, decided that a memorial to the westward expansion of the United States could be built here. The St. Louis Mayor at the time and President Franklin Roosevelt liked the idea. Between 1939 and 1942, all the buildings in a 40-block area were torn down.

In 1947-48 an architectural competition was held. A total of 172 entries were evaluated by a jury of seven architects who chose a beautiful stainless steel arch designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen. (At center inside arch) In 1957 Saarinen began designing the Arch. Unfortunately, Saarinen died in 1961 at the age of 51 and never got to see the Arch built and be the success that it is.

Construction began on February 12, 1963 and was completed on October 28, 1965 at an overall cost of $13 million. The monument opened to the public on June 10, 1967.

Saarinen's design could not have been built without the theoretical mathmatics of engineer Hannskarl Bandel, inside the Arch right side at bottom.

Saarinen worked with landscape architect Dan Kiley to create the graceful curves of the shaded walks and grounds with trees, meadows and ponds (right side, second from top)

Inventor Richard Bowser created the unique Arch transportation system. (right side, third from top)

Saarinen's partner John Dinkeloo oversaw construction after Saarinen's death in 1961. (right side, top)

St. Louis contractor Robert MacDonald won the bid to build the arch (right side, fourth from top) and Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel was hired to erect it.

Congresswoman Leonor K. Sullivan obtained much of the necessary funding from Congress (Left side, bottom)

And now we are at the top in the Observation Area!

A little to the left was the St. Louis Cardinals Baseball stadium.

Looking down at a Tug pushing a single barge. When I flew the Mississippi River a month ago, I saw tugs pushing up to 35 barges.

Looking up at the Arch. It is really quite amazing.

It is a weighted catenary arch, for you engineers out there.

The exit from the underground area.

The Gateway Arch is the world's tallest arch, and the tallest man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere.

The river was very industrial. Numerous plants of various types were along shore, each with a apparatus to transport the product to and from the river and load/unload the river barges.

There goes the light rail train.

I was shocked, shocked, to discover the paddle wheels were not turning! The vessel was being propelled by a propeller.

There were many different type of barges. Maybe this one is an oil tanker barge?

Interstate 70 goes across this bridge: the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge. It was known as the New Mississippi River Bridge until its formal naming in 2013 and informally known as the "Stan Span". The bridge was under construction between April 19, 2010, and July 2013, and opened on February 9, 2014. Stan Musial (or Stan the Man), of course, was the great St. Louis Cardinal outfielder and first baseman who played from 1941 to 1944 and from 1946 to 1963. He played on three World Championship teams, won the National League MVP three times and was inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame in 1969.

Heading south back to the Arch.

We continued south for a bit. Ahead are two bridges. The first is Poplar Street Bridge which carries Interstate 55, Interstate 64 and US Route 40. Approximately 100,000 vehicles cross the bridge daily, making it the second most heavily used bridge on the river, after the I-94 Dartmouth Bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The third is the older looking MacArthur Bridge which has the freight train going across it. The MacArthur Bridge opened in 1917, when it automobile traffic first began to use it. Railroad traffic would not use the bridge's lower deck until 1928. From 1929 through 1955, the MacArthur Bridge carried U.S. Highway 66 until the completion of the nearby Poplar Street Bridge. At one time, U.S. Highway 460 crossed the bridge, terminating on the west side of the bridge. In 1981 the bridge was closed to vehicles because of pavement deterioration and the eastern ramp approaches were torn out. The bridge is now in use only by railroads. The disused vehicle deck has been removed.

A squadron of barges.

October 25, 2020 - St. Louis Gateway Arch
We stayed two nights at the Drury Plaza Hotel in downtown St. Louis, about as close to the Arch as you could possibly get. I was really impressed with the Drury: modern, safe, nice, free underground parking, and a great rate. The breakfast for these Chinese Virus times was superior. To top it off, you get three free drinks each night at the happy hour. Lynnette and I had a great dinner at Carmine's Steak House in the hotel building. This diorama of the Lewis and Clark expedition was in the Drury Plaza lobby.

Well, if you are in St. Louis, of course you have to go and see the Gateway Arch. So this morning we walked over to the Arch. I had bought tickets in advance online. I bought the combo tickets which included the underground museum, the ride to the top of the Arch and then a Mississippi river tour on a boat. The museum -- underground below the Arch -- is outstanding. We started off by seeing a very interesting 45 minute movie on the designing, enginineering and building of the Arch. Then we toured the museum. This is a model of St. Louis as it was during the steamboat days. As you can see, they would pull up right onto the sloped shore.

A nicely-done wall mural recognizing the designers and builders of the Arch. In late 1933, St. Louis lawyer Luther Ely Smith, (inside the arch, left side at top) appalled at the dilapidated St. Louis riverfront district, decided that a memorial to the westward expansion of the United States could be built here. The St. Louis Mayor at the time and President Franklin Roosevelt liked the idea. Between 1939 and 1942, all the buildings in a 40-block area were torn down. In 1947-48 an architectural competition was held. A total of 172 entries were evaluated by a jury of seven architects who chose a beautiful stainless steel arch designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen. (At center inside arch) In 1957 Saarinen began designing the Arch. Unfortunately, Saarinen died in 1961 at the age of 51 and never got to see the Arch built and be the success that it is. Construction began on February 12, 1963 and was completed on October 28, 1965 at an overall cost of $13 million. The monument opened to the public on June 10, 1967. Saarinen's design could not have been built without the theoretical mathmatics of engineer Hannskarl Bandel, inside the Arch right side at bottom. Saarinen worked with landscape architect Dan Kiley to create the graceful curves of the shaded walks and grounds with trees, meadows and ponds (right side, second from top) Inventor Richard Bowser created the unique Arch transportation system. (right side, third from top) Saarinen's partner John Dinkeloo oversaw construction after Saarinen's death in 1961. (right side, top) St. Louis contractor Robert MacDonald won the bid to build the arch (right side, fourth from top) and Pittsburgh-Des Moines Steel was hired to erect it. Congresswoman Leonor K. Sullivan obtained much of the necessary funding from Congress (Left side, bottom)

A model showing how the tram cars go up the curved Arch.

And then it was time to go up the arch in the tram. We were very lucky in that they had only reopened up the tram rides in the last week or so. They were pretty tight about the number of people that could go up at a time, social distancing and all that. Advance reservations were required, which we had. Each tram has its own door. Only Lynnette and I were in our tram.

Now we are on the tram going up, looking at the stairway. I'd hate to have to go up all those stairs all the way to the top.

And now we are at the top in the Observation Area!

Looking down at the Old St. Louis County Courthouse. Our hotel was just to the left of it.

A little to the left was the St. Louis Cardinals Baseball stadium.

And to the right is the domed stadium where the St. Louis Rams used to play.

A closer look at the Old Courthouse. The courthouse was abandoned by the city in 1930 and it formally became part of the new monument area in 1940. Due to the Chinese Virus, the National Park Service was not allowing anyone inside for a tour.

Looking across the Mississippi River at East St. Louis. The Cahokia Mounds are out there somewhere.

Looking down at a Tug pushing a single barge. When I flew the Mississippi River a month ago, I saw tugs pushing up to 35 barges.

We came down in the Tram and exited the Arch. Here you can see how the Arch was constructed by pre-fabricated triangular modules. The skin is stainless steel. They laid the first triangule module at the base -- on each side -- and then put the next module on top, then another one on top of that, and so on. Eventually, they only had to put a small cross-piece at the top.

Looking up at the Arch. It is really quite amazing. It is a weighted catenary arch, for you engineers out there.



The exit from the underground area.



The Arch is 630 feet high.


We headed down towards the river to catch our boat ride.

There it is: Gateway Arch riverboat cruises!

Lynnette is excited to go aboard the Tom Sawyer.

The Gateway Arch is the world's tallest arch, and the tallest man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere.

It was built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States. Supposedly, a total of 11 people have flown aircraft through the arch as of 2016. Most of the pilots who flew through the arch were never caught. Now, with all the security camera technology, a pilot probably could not get away with it.

Aerial tour helicopters operate off that barge. But not today.

The river was very industrial. Numerous plants of various types were along shore, each with a apparatus to transport the product to and from the river and load/unload the river barges.

About to pass under the historical Eads Bridge. Dedicated in 1874, it was the world's first steel-truss bridge. It is a combined road and railway bridge. The bridge is named for its designer and builder, James Buchanan Eads. Many things about the bridge were technology firsts or largest size in bridge history. For example, much of the metal in the bridge is wrought iron but the primary load-carrying components of the arches were made from steel. This was the first large-scale application of steel as a structural material and initiated the shift from wrought-iron to steel as the default material for large structures. Eads Bridge was the first bridge across the Mississippi south of the Missouri River. Earlier bridges were located north of the Missouri, where the Mississippi is smaller. None of the earlier bridges survive; Eads Bridge is the oldest bridge on the river. President Ulysses S. Grant dedicated the bridge on July 4, 1874, and General William T. Sherman drove the gold spike completing construction.

From the Arch museum, a picture of Eads Bridge back in the day. The bridge was the image of the city of St. Louis, from the time of its erection in 1874 until 1965 when the Gateway Arch was completed.

Eads Bridge transitions into St. Louis. It is still in use. The highway deck was closed to automobiles from 1991 to 2003, but has been restored and carries vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The former railroad deck now carries the St. Louis MetroLink light rail system, providing commuter train service between St Louis and communities on the Illinois side of the river.

Under the bridge.

There goes the light rail train.

Homeless living in tents alongside the river.

I was shocked, shocked, to discover the paddle wheels were not turning! The vessel was being propelled by a propeller.

The Ashley Street Power House. In 1902 the Union Electric Company built the 36,000 kW coal-fired Ashley Street Plant in the city's Near North Riverfront region to provide steam heat to downtown St. Louis. The plant was for years the city's main source of electricity. It powered The Palace of Electricity's electric lights at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. The plant was converted to oil in 1972 and from oil to natural gas in 1996. Today, the plant functions as a district steam plant for the city of St. Louis and is owned by Ashley Energy.

A big powerful Tug.

Closeup of one of the ubiquitous barges on the Mississippi River.

There were many different type of barges. Maybe this one is an oil tanker barge?

This barge had all sorts of cranes on it.

Interstate 70 goes across this bridge: the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge. It was known as the New Mississippi River Bridge until its formal naming in 2013 and informally known as the "Stan Span". The bridge was under construction between April 19, 2010, and July 2013, and opened on February 9, 2014. Stan Musial (or Stan the Man), of course, was the great St. Louis Cardinal outfielder and first baseman who played from 1941 to 1944 and from 1946 to 1963. He played on three World Championship teams, won the National League MVP three times and was inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame in 1969.

We made a U-turn at the Stan Span.

Another barge alongside a loading apparatus.

A big seawall to keep the river from overflowing.

Heading south back to the Arch.

Another look.

We continued south for a bit. Ahead are two bridges. The first is Poplar Street Bridge which carries Interstate 55, Interstate 64 and US Route 40. Approximately 100,000 vehicles cross the bridge daily, making it the second most heavily used bridge on the river, after the I-94 Dartmouth Bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The third is the older looking MacArthur Bridge which has the freight train going across it. The MacArthur Bridge opened in 1917, when it automobile traffic first began to use it. Railroad traffic would not use the bridge's lower deck until 1928. From 1929 through 1955, the MacArthur Bridge carried U.S. Highway 66 until the completion of the nearby Poplar Street Bridge. At one time, U.S. Highway 460 crossed the bridge, terminating on the west side of the bridge. In 1981 the bridge was closed to vehicles because of pavement deterioration and the eastern ramp approaches were torn out. The bridge is now in use only by railroads. The disused vehicle deck has been removed.

Passing by the sister of the Tom Sawyer, the Becky Thatcher.

I was surprised to see stacked containers on the freight train crossing the MacArthur bridge. Never seen that before. Of course, it has been a while since I've driven out west.

Passing by what is left of the Navy minesweeper USS Inaugural (AM-242). USS Inaugural was an Admirable-class fleet minesweeper, the largest and one of the most successful classes of U.S. minesweepers ordered during World War II. Inaugural was launched on 1 October 1944 and commissioned less than three months later. After seeing combat in the Pacific Theater, she was decommissioned in 1946 and spent two decades in mothballs. In 1968, she was set up as a museum ship in St. Louis, Missouri. In the flood of 1993, Inaugural was ripped from her mooring and grounded a mile downstream. She was just left here and here she rests.

A squadron of barges.


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October 25, 2020 - St. Louis Gateway Arch