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N0KFQ > TODAY 28.10.10 18:01l 57 Lines 2577 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 19418_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Oct 28
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From: N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
To : TODAY@WW
Oct 28, 1965:
Workers complete the famous Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri
On this day in 1965, workers "top out" the final section of the
Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, completing construction of
the nation's tallest memorial after four years of work.
A graceful 603-foot high ribbon of gleaming stainless steel, the
Gateway Arch spans 630 feet at the ground and is meant to
symbolically mark the gateway from the eastern United States to
the West. Architect Eero Saarinen's dramatic design was chosen
during a 1947 competition, and has since become a landmark famous
around the world.
The Gateway Arch is the most prominent feature of St. Louis's
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Park, which also includes
an Underground Visitors Center featuring exhibits charting the
100-year history of America's westward expansion. Although St.
Louis was by no means the only jumping-off point for emigrants
moving westward, during much of the 19th century the city's
advantageous location, just below the confluence of the
Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, made it an important hub for
much of the nation's western expansion. Most famously, Lewis and
Clark began their exploration of the newly acquired Louisiana
Territory when they departed from St. Louis in May 1804, and
Zebulon Pike also started his western explorations there in 1805.
Once these famous trailblazers had shown the way, thousands of
other followed in their footsteps.
For a time, St. Louis was also a center for the fur trade, as the
mountain men scoured the western streams and lakes for valuable
animals and sent their skins back East through the city. As the
tide of easterners emigrating West steadily grew, St. Louis also
became a popular jumping-off point for the main overland trails
to Santa Fe, California, and Oregon. The arrival of the first
steamboat, the Pike, along the docks of St. Louis in 1817 began
the city's role as a hub for steam-powered water transportation
along the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.
Railroads, too, ensured that St. Louis would be an important
transportation center for the second half of the 19th century.
However, railroads also made it possible for the upstart city of
Chicago to begin challenging St. Louis's role as the gateway to
the West. With its easy access to the extensive network of
eastern lakes, canals, and railroads, after 1850 Chicago began to
supplant St. Louis as the major railway hub and economic center
of the West.
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