2014-10-23 Meet Me in St Louis Arch

First off, let's get the name straight. Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. The memorial commemorates the Louisiana Purchase, the slavery debate because of the Dred Scott case, and the first civilized government west of the Mississippi.

So what's here?
There's a 91 acre park, the Old Courthouse, a museum (Museum of the Westward Expansion) inside the Arch, and the Gateway Arch itself.

Our walk from the parking lot to the Arch was lined with trees dressed in their fall colors. I don't think we need to go to Vermont to see trees change colors. They are everywhere. And Vermont certainly doesn't have THIS as a backdrop.

We bought tickets online last night so that we could get in one of the 8 elevator cars (they hold 5 people each) at the time we wanted. The set of cars leaves every 10 minutes.

Here's what ONE of the elevator pods looks like. As they go from the basement of the Arch, up a leg, and then to the top, and they rotate to keep you level.

The stainless steel arch is such a beautiful structure. The triangular bases are 51' on all three sides at the bottom. They taper to 17' at the top where the observation area is located.

Once you are up to the top you'll find room for about 100 people.

These are the windows you get to look out of. There is a set of 16 on each side.

The Old Courthouse is sitting to our west. I see they are putting a lid over the freeway to make access to the Arch easier.

We can also see the St Louis Cardinals baseball team's stadium. (If they had made it into the World Series this city would have been a zoo this week)

Artsy Fartsy shot of the Arch's shadow.

Karen's dreaming about a cruise on the Mississippi River again.

They are rebuilding their floodwall and McDonald's used to have a floating restaurant on the waterfront.

The Museum of the Westward Expansion is confusing. It looks like 1/2 of a wagon wheel and it doesn't lend itself well to following westward expansion in a chronological order. You just kind of wander around.

The back wall has panels of Lewis and Clark's journey from St Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back. The panels use words from the writings of about 6 of the men who kept journals.

There were some working audioanimatronics also. This guy explained how he was choosen to make the peace medal that they took with them.

Sadly, some weren't working and just held their head down in shame.

We walked up to the Old Courthouse and it is really pretty inside.

History lesson time. This courthouse heard the Dred Scott case. Dred was a slave but his owner moved to a non-slave state and then back again and by the laws of the state he should have been free. So he sued for his freedom. The ruling was that Africans could not claim citizenship and therefore could not bring suit in court. The judge basically ruled the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional.

The resultant public outrage increased tension between the North and the South, prompted Abraham Lincoln to re-enter politics, and led to the Civil War.

Karen has a great eye for finding these lovely shots to take.