Gateway Arch

I'm not really sure why this landmark in downtown St. Louis is designated as a National Park. But it is. We like cities. We like National Parks. So we went.

According to its NPS website, the Arch is the "Gateway to the West." The park is a nod to Thomas Jefferson and the pioneers who expanded westward, as well as to Dred Scott, who sued for his freedom in the Old Courthouse, which you can visit nearby. The Arch was built in the 1960s and was designated as a National Park in 2018.

We rode a tram to the top of the Gateway Arch for some stunning views, including of a Cardinals game that was in its ninth inning. The tram was and still is an engineering marvel that takes you to the top of the 630-foot arch. Part elevator, part escalator, part ferris wheel, the tram has eight separate pods that hold five people.

The ride up and down is pretty cool. And you get about eight minutes at the top to look around before you go back down. There's a museum at the bottom of the Arch about westward expansion that was interesting.

The entire park is situated on 91 acres - roughly the size of a couple of city blocks. Some cool facts: On a clear day, you can see up to 30 miles away from the top of the Arch, with views of Illinois and Missouri. There are 1,076 stairs on each side of the Arch, but only maintenance workers and emergency personnel are allowed to use them. And the Arch withstands hundreds of lightning strikes each year.