The Gateway Arch and Chilean Miners!

A year ago today the horrible news about a mine collapse came out of Chile. 33 miners were trapped and the world would watch with baited breathe over the next 10 weeks to see if they could be rescued. Eventually the drills were able to reach the area where the men were trapped and an escape capsule was sent down to retrieve the men. The world watched as miner after miner was brought to the surface in the capsule that barely fit a person.

What does this have to do with my visit to the Gateway Arch? Well you are about to find out!

The Gateway Arch was number one on my list of things to do when I was in St. Louis.  So on Saturday my sister and I got up early, bundled up and met our friend for a day of sight seeing.   Even though it was early December winter had settled in the city. The weathermen were predicting a high temp of 24 degrees fahrenheit that day(little did we know it would also be incredibly windy and even colder downtown). The three of us got in the rental car and headed downtown to the banks of the Mississippi to see the arch.  Once we parked the car we headed to base of the arch and were amazed at the sheer height of it!  It was cold down along the river and we quickly headed to the arch for our trip to the observation area at the top.

We entered the underground visitors which  is located directly below the arch, between its legs. All visitors are required to pass through security as they enter the visitor center. Please note that you will be required to remove your coat, belt and empty your pockets as you pass through the metal detectors.  The center houses offices, mechanical rooms, and waiting areas for the arch trams, as well as its main attractions: the Museum of Westward Expansion and two theaters displaying films about the arch.

After passing through security and touring the museum we went to get in line for our trip to the observation area at the top of the arch.  There are three modes of transportation up the arch: two sets of 1,076-step emergency stairs (one in each leg),an elevator to the 300-foot (91 m) height, and a tram in each leg.  Each tram is a chain of eight egg-shaped, five-seat compartments with a small window on the doors.  As each tram has a capacity of 40 passengers and there are two trams, 80 passengers can be transported at one time, with trams departing from the ground every 10 minutes.  The cars swing like Ferris-wheel cars as they ascend and descend the arch.  The trip to the top takes four minutes, and the trip down takes three minutes. At the top, passengers disembark to a 65 feet (20 m)-long observation area.

After showing our tickets we went down a flight of stairs and were told to stand on step # 6. (I think it was 6, they are numbered and you are told which one to stand on). So our little group of three stood there waiting for our trip to the top of the arch. As we stood there my sister noticed that there were no doors along the wall. There were recessed retangular cutouts in the wall that had what appeared to be a metal door in it. I told her that I thought that was the door to the tram and she said no way.

Well it turns out I was right. Suddenly the metal door slides up and we were asked to climb into the small opening and take a seat in the tram.  The tram itself sort of looked like and egg. For those old enough, picture Morks Egg (you remember the Mork and Mindy show back in the 70s right?). The three of us stuffed ourselves in the tram, the door closed and we started what turned out to be the longest 4 minutes of my life. I hate small spaces. I am extremely claustrophobic. I actually hyperventilate for the first few minutes of snorkeling every time we go. So to take my mind off the small space I started to comment on the miners and what it must have been like for them. On the way back down we decided that we would have some fun with the people waiting to head to the top of the arch. When our door opened we jumped out and repeated a phrase heard by all the miners when they arrived at the surface….Chi, Chi, Chi, Lei, Lei, Lei! You should have seen the looks on the faces of the people waiting to go to the top when we did that! So that is our Chilean Miner connection to our Arch visit,.

Here is my sister climbing into the tram…

Here is a pic of the tram….

Here are some facts about the arch!

– The Arch is 630 feet (192 meters) tall; 630 feet is also the distance from leg to leg at ground level.

– Allowing 10 feet for every story, the Arch is exactly 63 stories tall.

– The tram takes four minutes to get to the top and three minutes to travel from the top to the bottom, plus an additional three minutes to load; so a tram just leaving the top will return in approximately 10 minutes.

– The vision of renowned architect Eero Saarinen, the Gateway Arch commemorates Thomas Jefferson and St. Louis’ role in the westward expansion of the United States.

– Construction of the Arch began February 12, 1963 and was completed on October 28, 1965. The north tram was opened to the public on July 24, 1967. The south tram was completed in 1968.

– All visitors are allowed to stay as long as they like. However, the approximate time of a complete trip is 45 minutes (or until closing time).

– The viewing area at the top can hold up to 160 people. There are 16 windows on each side of the viewing area. Each window is 7 x 27 inches.

– The Mississippi River flows directly below the east windows of the Arch at a normal top water speed of 3 miles an hour at a depth of about 12-15 feet. The Missouri River meets the Mississippi about 15 miles to the north of the Arch.

– The Arch is designed to sway as much as 18 inches, and can withstand an earthquake, however under normal conditions the Arch does not sway. It takes a 50-mile an hour wind to move the top 1 1/2 inches each side of center.

– The Arch has a series of lightning rods on the top which are grounded directly into bedrock, with a perfectly insulated interior. It is able to withstand hundreds of lightning bolts which hit it each year.

– Attractions within the Arch are the Journey to the Top, the Museum of Westward Expansion, educational programs, two movies and shopping.

– Due to security measures at the Gateway Arch, all visitors to the Arch must pass through a security checkpoint. No weapons – including knives – are allowed. If you have pre-purchased your tram ticket, please arrive at least 30 minutes before your tram time.

– During the summer season, as many as 80 trips a day on each tram can go to the top. Forty tickets are sold for each trip, so 6400 people can visit the top each day. During the winter season there are only 48 trips to the top each day on each tram.

– On a clear day the view at the top can extend up to thirty miles in either direction, however, St. Louis can be a very hazy city which reduces visibility at the top. On cool, damp mornings a dense fog can create zero visibility at the top.

Route 66

One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926. The famous road signs were erected the following year. The highway is also known as the as the Will Rogers Highway after the humorist, it is also known as the “Main Street of America” or the “Mother Road” or “The most famous road in the world”.

The highway eventually became one of the most famous roads in America. It originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, before ending at Los Angeles, covering a total of 2,448 miles. It became a part of pop culture after being recognized by a hit song written by written by Bobby Troup, originally recorded by the Nat King Cole Trio in 1946, and later performed by such artists as Chuck Berry, The Rolling Stones, The Manhattan Transfer and Depeche Mode. In the 1960s it was famous because of the Route 66 television show.

U.S. 66 was officially removed from the United States Highway System on June 27, 1985. It was decided the route was no longer relevant and had been replaced by the Interstate Highway System. Portions of the road that passed through Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, and Arizona have been designated a National Scenic Byway of the name “Historic Route 66“. It has begun to return to maps in this form. Some portions of the road in southern California have been redesignated “State Route 66”, and others bear “Historic Route 66” signs and relevant historic information.

When we visited Missouri in 2010 my friends and I were lucky to get a glimpse of a stretch of Route 66 and we were able to learn a little bit about its Missouri History. We learned that the official recognized birthplace of U.S. Route 66, was in Springfield, Missouri on April 30, 1926 when officials first proposed the name of the new Chicago-to-Los Angeles highway. A placard in Park Central Square was dedicated to the city by the Route 66 Association of Missouri, and traces of the “Mother Road” are still visible in downtown Springfield along Kearney Street, Glenstone Avenue, College and St. Louis streets and on Missouri 266 to Halltown.

Here is a sign that we were able to see while driving around St. Louis:

Route 66 became the first highway to be completely paved in 1938. Several places were dangerous: more than one part of the highway was nicknamed “Bloody 66” and gradually work was done to realign these segments to remove dangerous curves. One section just outside Oatman, Arizona (through the Black Mountains) still had hairpin turns and was the steepest along the entire route. Some travelers too frightened at the thought of having to navigate this dangerous road, hired locals to navigate the winding grade. The section remained as Route 66 until 1953 and is still open to traffic today as the Oatman Highway. (This is the section of highway illustrated on the map shown to Lightning McQueen in the Disney movie Cars, as the road bypassed by new Interstate 40.) Despite such hazards in some areas, Route 66 continued to be a popular route.

The beginning of the end for Route 66 came in 1956 with the signing of the Interstate Highway Act by President Dwight Eisenhower who was influenced by his experiences in 1919 as a young Army officer crossing the country in a truck convoy (following the route of the Lincoln Highway), and his appreciation of the German Autobahn network as a necessary component of a national defense system.

With the decommissioning of US 66, no single interstate route was designated to replace it. Interstate 55 covered the section from Chicago to St. Louis; Interstate 44 carried the traffic on to Oklahoma City; Interstate 40 took the largest chunk, replacing 66 to Barstow, California; Interstate 15 took over for the route to San Bernardino; and Interstate 210 and State Route 2 or Interstate 10 carried the traffic of Route 66 across the Los Angeles metropolitan area to Santa Monica, and the seashore.

In 1999 the National Route 66 Preservation Billwas signed into law by President Bill Clinton, which provided for $10 million in matching fund grants for preserving and restoring the historic features along the route. Disney fans know all too well that Disney’s 2006 animated film Cars revolves around the decline of the fictional Radiator Springs, a once-booming ghost town that fell into the doldrums when its mother road, Route 66, was bypassed by the Interstate. Pixar’s creative director John Lasseter was inspired by what he saw after he took a cross-country road trip with his family in 2000, particularly on the segments of Route 66 he visited. After arriving home, he contacted road historian Michael Wallis, who led the creative team down the still-drivable parts of the route as research for the film. The movie’s subsequent success led to a resurgence of interest in Route 66 among the general public.

In 2007 my friend and I took a girls trip to Las Vegas. Being that we are not big gamblers we arranged to take a tour out to the Grand Canyon. On our way out to the Canyon we stopped for a bit in Winslow, Arizonia where we were able to walk part of the original Route 66. The city is now served by the I-40 and is most famous for being mentioned in the Eagles song “Take it Easy”. The song has a line “standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona.”

Here are pics from Winslow, AZ:

Anheuser-Busch

Last December I had an opportunity to spend a weekend in St. Louis. I was flying out to spend the weekend sight seeing with my sister who was there for work training. Although it was absolutely freezing and a lot of the tours that we wanted to do weren’t running because it was the winter we were able to tour the Anheuser-Busch plant.

Thankfully I had done my research ahead of time and rented a car. The brewery was not within walking distance of our hotel and we weren’t sure we wanted the hassle of figuring out the bus system. So after grabbing breakfast with my sister and some of her new friends we piled into the car and headed off on our adventure.

The St. Louis plant is the regional headquarter for Anheuser-Busch which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Belgian-Brazilian Inbev. The brewery, opened in 1852 and is a National Historic Landmark District. This includes three buildings listed as National Historic Landmarks. Free public tours of the brewery are given. The tour took us through the complex, gave a us a narrative about the company, and two free glasses of any Anheuser-Busch product in the Hospitality Room after the tour. We got to see the see beer being made and packaged in a working part of the brewery. Because we did the tour on a Sunday we got to sit back, enjoy our fresh beer and watch some good ole American football in the tasting room. A great way to spend the day!

One of my favorite parts of the tour was being able ot see the famous Budweiser Clydesdales which are kept at its headquarters. Some of the herd is kept at the company farm in St. Louis County. The farm, known as Grant’s Farm (having been owned by former President Ulysses S. Grant at one time), is home to a menagerie of animals such as elephants, tortoises, and a variety of exotic hooved mammals. Since 2008, approximately half of the Budweiser Clydesdales are kept at the Warm Springs Ranch near Boonville Missouri.

The brewery was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1966. The landmarked area includes 189 structures spread over 142 acres including many red brick Romanesque ones “with square crenelated towers and elaborate details.” The Brew House, built in 1891-1892, is particularly notable for its “multi-storied hop chandeliers, intricate iron-work, and utilization of natural light”.

Interesting facts:

Adolphus Busch was the first U.S. brewer to use pasteurization to keep beer fresh, the first to use artificial refrigeration and refrigerated railroad cars and the first to bottle beer extensively

The St. Louis Cardinals baseball club were owned by Anheuser-Busch from February 20, 1953 until the club was sold to a group of private investors on March 21, 1996. Busch Memorial Stadium, paid for and built by the brewery in the mid-1960s, was recently demolished and replaced by a new ballpark. Anheuser-Busch signed an agreement for the new ballpark to retain the “Busch Stadium” name on the new building through 2025.

As with all breweries in the country, the Temperance movement and eventual Prohibition in the United States dealt a major blow to the company in the 1910s through the 1930s. Some of the products sold by Anheuser-Busch to survive during Prohibition included brewer’s yeast, malt extract, ice cream, and Bevo, a nonalcoholic malt beverage.

Anheuser-Busch became the largest brewer in the United States in 1957.

As of 2008, it has 48.9% share of beer sales in the United States (by barrels), and produces about 11 billion bottles and cans of beer a year.

Here are some pics from my tour:

Visiting the Gateway to the West

During the Vietnam War my dad was stationed with the 101st Airborne Division out at Fort Leonard Wood Missouri.  Every so often something would trigger a story about the area from him. He would mention going into the city of St. Louis on weekend leave and seeing hockey games. He talked about the tornados. He mentioned Route 66 an how flat the area is compared to New England.

Visiting St. Louis was something I really never thought about in terms of a vacation. After hearing stories from my dad I was curious about the area. My best hope was that I would go there for business. Well I did. Sort of. Last fall my sister started a new job. In November she was told that she had to go to St. Louis for 2 weeks for training. She was scheduled to fly out the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend and  she was really down in the dumps about being away during the start of the holiday season.

Never one to pass up a trip I asked her if she was going to have a roomate or if she had the hotel room to herself. She was staying alone and after hearing that I researched some flights. I was able to find one cheap enough so I called her and told her I was coming out the weekend she was there. So on a whim a trip was planned. I have some really great stories about the trip that I will post in future blogs.

Because she was on a business trip, my sister was staying in Richmond Heights which is a suburb of the city. I rented a car and we were able to drive around and see a bunch of tourist attractions while I was there.  Even though we were there in December and it was freezing (absolutely freezing!) we had a great time and I really enjoyed the city.

My recommendation to anyone planning on visiting. Try to go between March and October. A lot of the tours we were interested in taking were seasonal and we weren’t able to see them. St. Louis is a very pretty city and I can only imagine how much prettier it would have been in the spring or summer when everything was in bloom.

On a personal note it was really cool to visit a city that my dad spent a lot of time in during his younger years. Since the trip we have had a lot of really cool chats about the city and his time there.