Gateway Arch, St. Louis, MO Metal Tree Decoration

The Gateway Arch, or Gateway to the West,[5] is an arch that is the centerpiece of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, Missouri. It was built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States. At 630 feet (192 m), it is the tallest man-made monument in the United States,[4] Missouri's tallest accessible building, and the largest architectural structure designed as a weighted or flattened catenary arch.[4] The arch is located at the site of St. Louis' foundation,[6] on the west bank of the Mississippi River where Pierre Laclède, just after noon on February 14, 1764, told his aide, Auguste Chouteau, to build a city.[7][8] The Gateway Arch was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen and German-American structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel in 1947. Construction began on February 12, 1963, and ended on October 28, 1965,[9][10] costing US$13 million at the time[11] (approximately $95,900,000 today[2]). The monument opened to the public on June 10, 1967.[12] Built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States, the arch typifies "the pioneer spirit of the men and women who won the West, and those of a latter day to strive on other frontiers." The arch has become the iconic image of St. Louis,[58] appearing in many parts of city culture. In 1968, three years after the monument's opening, the St. Louis phone directory contained 65 corporations with "Gateway" in their title and 17 with "Arch". Arches also appeared over gas stations and drive-in restaurants.[118] In the 1970s, a local sports team adopted the name "Fighting Arches". Robert S. Chandler, an NPS superintendent, said, "Most [visitors] are awed by the size and scale of the Arch, but they don't understand what it's all about.... Too many people see it as just a symbol of the city of St. Louis."[64] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Louis_Arch Photo by Arvind Mohanram