The St. Louis Gateway Arch is one of Missouri's most popular attractions. It was added to the U.S.National Register of Historic Places on May 28, 1987. It is the city's best known landmark and a popular tourist attraction Completed in 1965 it is known as the Gateway to the West and is a part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.

This construction is the tallest national monument in the United States. It has 630 feet height and 17,246 tons weight. It was used nine hundred tons of stainless steel was used to build the Arch, it’s more than any other project in history. Construction began February 12, 1963 and the last section of the Arch was put into place on October 28, 1965. The cost of that venture was huge, built cost was 13 million dollars, and the transportation system was built at a cost of 3 and half million dollars. There are 142 sections in the Arch and before the final piece was put into place a time capsule that contains signatures of 762,000 St. Louis area students was welded into the keystone.

The Arch has 2 enclosed trams that take visitors to the top. There are 8 tram cars in the north and south legs and each car seats 5 people. Each year approximately one million visitors will ride the trams to the top of the Arch. The number of stair steps in the Arch which is used for emergency maintenance only is 1,076 and there are 105 landings.

There are a lot of amazing attractions. If you like you can fly directly below the Gateway Arch or you can take a ride down the Mississippi River on a 19th century replica steamboat. Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher combine the charm of the 1800s with modern conveniences of today. If you want a memory for all live you should take wedding there, because you can do that on the top of Arch.

Old Courthouse was completed in 1862, if you want it takes you back to the time when two slaves, Dred and Harriet Scott pleaded with the court for their freedom. Virginia Minor also petitioned for women's right to vote in the 1870’s.

Autor: Filip Lewandowski