The Gateway Arch

The Gateway Arch is a 630-foot-high (192 m) monument.

Covered in steel and built in the form of an arch, it is the tallest man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere, Missouri's tallest accessible building , and the world's tallest arch.

The Gateway Arch was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen and German-American structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel in 1947. The Construction began on February 12 in 1963, and was completed on October 28 in 1965 at a total cost of $ 13 million.

The bidding date, originally December 20, 1961, was put back to January 22, 1962, to clarify the details of the arch construction. About 50 companies that had requested the construction requirements received bidding invitations.

The monument opened to the public on June 10, 1967.

Although an actuarial firm predicted thirteen workers would die while building the arch, no workers were killed during the monument's construction.

However, the arch construction was still often delayed by safety checks, funding uncertainties, and legal disputes.

The cross-sections of the arch's legs are equilateral triangles, narrowing from 54 feet (16 m) per side at the bases to 17 feet (5.2 m) per side at the top.

In 1966, the arch was given a Special Award for Excellence from the American Institute of Steel Construction for being "an outstanding achievement in technology and aesthetics." On February 9, 1967, the arch received the Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement Award of 1967 from the American Society of Civil Engineers .The arch was once a unofficial rankings for the most-visited attraction in the world, after Lenin's Tomb , Disney World , Disneyland , and the Eiffel Tower (Oui non?) And on February 22, 1990, the arch received the American Institute of Architects Twenty-Five Year Award for its "enduring significance that has withstood the test of time."

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