Arch

On our drive back to MN from Pennsylvania we stopped in Saint Louis to visit the arch. This is my second visit to the arch. Last time I went up the north arm of the arch. This time I went up the south arm of the arch. Much of the media and information at the arch is about the 1960's. They have a nice museum too talking about life in Saint Louis from pre-European settlers to the present. They had a contest to determine the shape of the memorial to Thomas Jefferson and his idea to send Lewis and Clark exploring. The ride on the tram (5 people per car) takes 4 minutes going up and 3 minutes going down. Towards the bottom of the arch the tram car has to adjust the angle of the tram so it goes slow until about half way up and then it speeds up. From the top it can go fast right from the get-go and slow down at the bottom. We have about ten minutes to spend looking out the windows at the top.

The land on the far side of the Mississippi River belongs to Illinois. The water is quite high. A tug boat is pushing 15 barges tied together.