Dorothy Brush "Random Thoughts" Published April 30, 2003

The story of the St. Louis Arch

In Nashville, work is under way along the Cumberland River to beautify the waterfront and make it an inviting place to linger. One of the most expensive but badly needed projects was a new bridge to link downtown and east Nashville. Named the Gateway Bridge, its two spans form an arch which will welcome travelers as they enter the city. It is expected to be completed by December of this year and the original gray color of the arch will be transformed with silver paint and the steel beams will be painted red.

Eons ago, nature set the example in using arches in many ways. Mere mortals stand in awe of those natural sculptures the elements carved. Of man-made arches only one is truly awesome. G.E. Kidder Smith in his book The Architecture of the United States pays tribute to that arch with these words. "Flaming in the sun, disappearing in the mists, ghostly by the light of the moon, and, above all, proclaiming that here verily was the country's gateway to the West, the Gateway Arch ranks with the greatest monuments of world architecture... It almost seems alive."

Eero Saarinen was the architect whose imagination sparked a vision and his genius brought the arch to life. Born in Finland in 1910, his mother was a sculptor and his father an architect. The family emigrated to the States in 1923 and settled in Bloomfield Hills, MI where his father headed the arts academy Cranbrook. Son Eero received his architectural degree from Yale and then returned to teach at Cranbrook and work as a partner in his father's architectural firm.

In 1947 American architects received notice of a competition for a monument in St. Louis sponsored by the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association. It was civic leader, Luther Ely Smith, who advanced the idea of a monument to America's westward expansion in 1933. After 14 years of pushing, Smith found support for his idea.

Both Eero and his father, working independently, submitted designs and Eero's Arch was chosen by the jury over 117 other entries. That first submission was a pygmy compared to the final arch which soared 630 feet into the sky. Once Saarinen had been chosen, he worked eight more years refining the first model.

His arch drew upon the catenary curve often seen in nature. Imagine the arc of a chain suspended by two points but Saarinen turned that arc downside up. He left it to the engineers and workmen to figure out how to build it and they had many years to do that figuring because construction did not start for 14 years. The Korean War siphoned off the promised federal funds needed for the project.

In late June, 1962, the first concrete was poured. Not present for that beginning was the brilliant visionary Saarinen. He died in August 1961 at age 51.

As work progressed beside the Mississippi River, sidewalk superintendents watched as the two sides of the arch soared higher and higher. 900 tons of reflective stainless-steel skinned panels formed the arch. Hazardous as the work site was the Gateway Arch claimed no victims because of construction accidents.

By late October 1965 came the day of reckoning. Would those two parts come together as the legs were spread to install the keystone? A mistake of just 1/64 of an inch at the base would be too large a variation. Crowds lined the streets as the topping-out ceremony proceeded and ended with a perfect fit.

A visit to St. Louis would not be complete without touring the Gateway Arch.

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Dorothy Copus Brush is a Fairfield Glade resident and Crossville Chronicle staffwriter whose column is published each Wednesday.