Transcripts For CSPAN3 Gateway Arch 20140622 : vimarsana.com

It is a very busy place especially during the summer months. It was designed by a man named eero saarinen. He came here to america when he was 10 years old with his father who was a famous architect. He had worked with his father up to the point in time where architectural competition was announced for what became the arch that you see behind me. The competition was for Jefferson National expansion memorial which was a National Park service site founded by a president ial proclamation to commemorate st. Louiss role in the westward expansion in the united states. So 12 years after the founding of the park, an architectureal competition was held. 40 city blocks were torn down, erased of its original buildings to make way for the memorial on the st. Louis river front. Each architect who submitted a design proposal would do any he or she wanted. It could be a huge sculpture or anything they wanted it to be. Some people put a big kind of rectangular block or something. He decided to go within an arch and it was only after he designed if arch that he realized it forms a gateway so it is proposal appropriate for st. Louiss role as a gateway to have a giantic gateway on the river front. It is made out of stainless steel on the outside and on the inside it is 3. 25 carbon steel. So basically you have a sandwich. In the lower portions it is filled in with concrete. In the upper portions it is reinforcing rods that keep the sections apart. It is kind of a unique structure because it doesnt have a super structure on the inside. There is no girders. It is not just stainless steel on the top. Sometimes visiters surprised because they havent learned about the arch to learn they can go to the top of it. They think it is just an outside sculpture and you just look at it. At each leg of the arc, there is trains that run on a track. When they get into the capsule it is hanging from the track. By the time they get to the top it is on top of the track. In order to accommodate that and make sure people wont be flipped upside down it actually shifts and turns to keep the car level. It doesnt go fast like something out at a county fair or six flags or something. It is a unique experience. A lot of people pride in riding in the strange capsules to the top and getting the nice view from the top of the Observation Deck at the top. Right now, were in the midst of a multimilliondollar project being funded by different entities that are partnering with the National Park service to kind of revitalize the park itself and make it more accessible to people. For many years, weve been an island surrounded by high speed roads and what is going to happen is a lid is going to be placed over the highway so you can walk directly from the city, where you would probably park your vehicle directly to the arch where you dont have to cross any major streets. It is just this iconic graphic symbol of st. Louis, kind of like the space needle is to seattle. There are certain symbols that identify the maces on the map and the arch is the one for st. Louis. All weekend long American History tv is featuring st. Louis, missouri. The city was part of Thomas Jefferson purchase in 1803. Lewis and clark began their expedition. The Charter Cable partners lovingworked with the cable team when we traveled there. Learn more about st. Louis all weekend here on American History tv. To commemorate the museum, they put together 250 in 250. It will tell the stoifers 50 people, 50 places, 50 moments 50 objects. The museums historian shares with us one of the five