Gateway & Downtown Walk

Welcome to St. Louis, and to the Gateway Arch. At 630 feet, it's the world's tallest arch, clad in stainless steel. It stands on the 1764 site of the founding of St.

Louis, on the west bank of the Mississippi, as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States. The idea dates to late 1933, when civic leader Luther Ely Smith saw the rundown riverfront and imagined a memorial that would revive it and create jobs during the Great Depression. Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen designed the Arch in 1947, for a competition that drew 172 entries. Construction began on February 12, 1963, and was completed on October 28, 1965, at a cost of 13 million dollars.

The visitor center opened on June 10, 1967, and the tram to the top began running that July. Vice President Hubert Humphrey dedicated the Arch on May 25, 1968.

This is the Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France, known as the Old Cathedral. It was the first cathedral west of the Mississippi. When Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau founded the city, they set aside this plot west of Laclède's home for the Catholic Church. An itinerant priest used a tent here in 1766, a small log house followed by 1770, and a brick church replaced those beginning in 1818.

After the Diocese of St. Louis was created in 1826, Bishop Joseph Rosati laid the cornerstone of this church on August 1, 1831. It was designed by Laveille and Morton, and consecrated on Sunday, October 26, 1834. When the neighborhood was cleared for the Arch and its park, the church was left intact because of its history.

On January 27, 1961, Pope John XXIII named it a basilica, and it's still one of the most popular churches in the city for weddings.