I live about 3 hours from St. Louis , and I have been there more times than I can count. Seeing the arch looming up ahead on I-64 is always enough to start my heart hammering; I don’t know why it evokes such a strong reaction in me emotionally, but it does.
I can vaguely remember seeing it being built; I was about 4 or 5 years old , and my family was vacationing in St. Louis. We were taking a riverboat cruise , and there was the arch … well , most of it. It went about 3/4 the way up , and had not been ‘closed’ at the top yet. Dad took pictures of it , but they have been lost over the years.
All this said, I have only gone up in it once , in 2000. The museum under it is very cool. It was on my life-list of things I wanted to do. Now I’ve done it , and the only reason I’d do it again is if I have friends from ‘far away places’ come visit , and they want to do it.
I’m proud to say that the bubbaDad worked on construction of the arch. While he wasn’t involved with the building of the structure he contributed to the underground construction of the visitors center. As a member of the build team he was invited to “visit” before it was open. Only problem was he could only take the stairs :eek: since they had yet to complete the tourist elevator.
I remember seeing the arch right before it was completed. Two bending towers that rose up from the ground and then, instead of meeting in the middle, they “missed” each other. From the ground it had looked like they goofed. The east edge of the south tower met up with the west edge of the north tower. In fact it was a design necessity. The two towers were winched into place and connected. Additional structure strength was created by the stress of the two towers pulled into place. This is no doubt explained in the exhibits in the visitors center but at the time of construction the casual observer could only stand and wonder who’s head would roll over a percieved construction blunder.
Actually, Bubba if you check out the neat movie in the visitor’s center about the construction of the Arch, most of that misalignment (IIRC) was caused by heat expansion of the outside of the southern leg and the inside of the northern leg.
But you are correct (again, IIRC) that the tops were meant to be jacked apart before the final piece went in.
They have that movie for sale in the gift shop, and I’d dearly love to own it, but I’m waiting for them to digitally remaster it and put it on DVD.
That reminds me that I saw a documentary on cable about the building of the Arch. On the day the final piece was to be installed, the mayor was scheduled for a press conference under it and a big deal would be made throughout town.
The piece wouldn’t fit because of the heat expansion ExTank mentioned, and fire trucks were called to spray it down and contract the stainless steel.
