Visiting St. Louis - The Arch and Aneheuser Busch Brewery Tour

Saturday, August 17 2019

Day 8 on the Loop – Alton, IL (O miles)

We go up early, since we had an hour’s drive to St. Louis, where we had 8:40 am tickets to go to the top of the Gateway Arch.  The rained poured, and there was thunder and lightning nearby, but this cleared just as we were ready to leave.

The Arch was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen in 1947; construction began on February 12, 1963 and was completed on October 28, 1965 at an overall cost of $13 million (equivalent to $80.6 million in 2018). The monument opened to the public on June 10, 1967.  It is quite the feat of construction! 

We went directly to the small tram cars that take you to the top and had a four minute ride up (it only takes three minutes on the way down.  The attendant that gave us a quick overview of the process also shared that he had just had his ears pierced the day before.

The tram loading area.  Each car holds five people

The cars can hold up to five people, which would be quite a tight fit.  For those with claustrophobia this would be a bit of a challenging trip!  You enter the cars through a 4’ high opening, and sit on metal seats.   It is a fascinating to see the innards of the Arch as you ascend, including a spiral staircase for a portion of trip.

Looks like the inside of a some sort of space pod!

 

At the top the Arch there is a corridor with narrow slit windows looking out over the Mississippi and St. Louis. The view is quite spectacular.

Viewing Platform at the Top of the Arch

That is  long ways down!

After descending from the Arch we spent about 40 minutes in the visitors center, which gives a very good overview of the local area and the westward expansion.   We then went to watch a 28-minute film called “Monument to the Dream” that gives an overview of the purpose and history of the construction of the Arch.   At the time it was anticipated that 13 people would die during construction (which I guess was the standard for the day), but not one person was killed.  This is quite amazing since the workers were not wearing safety lines, etc.

The visitor’s center was a bit chilly, and we were getting hungry, so we walked to the Sugarfire Smokehouse Barbecue restaurant for lunch.

Quite the choice of sauces for your barbecue!

After lunch we went to the Anehauser Busch Brewery for a tour of the brewery and a look at the lovely Clydesdales.   There were some free samples of Bud and Bud Light beer, and a free bottle of freshly brewed Bud light, that we passed on.   The highlight of the tour for me was Clydesdales.

I wanted to spend more time with these guys!

One set of tack costs $100,000.  They are each custom made.

Beautiful stables!

It has been warm and humid today, so it was nice to check in to the Hyatt Hotel where we will be spending the night in St. Louis.

View of the Arch from our hotel room

There was a large conference in town and we learned that they were 32,000 Jehovah's Witnesses.  They were very polite, and well dressed, and also made for some competition for dinner restaurants. 

After dinner at a TGIF we visited a local kids sculpture park, which was good fun, and got some nice views back to the Arch as we walked back to the hotel.

Not sure what this represents, but it was interesting

Kids having fun in a waterfall pool.  The sign said there was a capacity limit of 50 people.