St. Louis Gateway Arch construction - photos

[Altair]

Construction photos of the 630-foot (192 m) tall Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.

[McDesign]

And then the city went to hell.

[jimfols]

Construction photos of the 630-foot (192 m) tall Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.

I remember driving by and watching the progress as it was being constructed.

Here's an article on how the heat of the sun affected the joining of the two sides.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/...a4bcf6878.html

[jdurand]

I remember seeing it partly constructed and later finished. Couldn't tell you what years that was.

[owen moore]

When the last section was ready to be inserted, the two towers were misaligned by quite a bit and nothing would fit. They let the midday sun heat up one side of the structure while they cooled the other side with fire hoses to warp it into alignment. I have seen a film on this years ago. I have also been the top of it and the view is unbelievable.

[drum365]

Thanks for your story, Owen. I hadn't heard that. And yes, the view is incredible.

I lived in St Louis when the Arch was being built. Like so many cutting-edge designs everyone hated it until it was done and then it became a point of pride. (Think of the Louvre pyramid or the Centre Pompidou.) An instantly recognizable skyline.

My favorite joke was that East St. Louis was going to build a giant croquet ball on the other side of the river.

[hemmjo]

I used to have a VHS tape of the construction process that I showed to my construction classes. The pre-fabricated stainless steel sections were built in Pittsburg in the early 60's and shipped by rail where they were assembled. I bet the video is available digital now.

It is fun to ride to the top in the little "elevator" cars they have that rotate on the way up to keep your head pointed up... lol

I just found the whole video, from beginning to end on YouTube. It is an impressive process and structure.

[Drew1966]

It looks like the width at the base matches the height. Like a y=x^2 parabola up to y=4.

[mklotz]

It looks like the width at the base matches the height. Like a y=x^2 parabola up to y=4.

It's an inverted weighted catenary - basically a hyperbolic cosine shape. It's height and width are indeed the same.