Abaigh

What national landmark is 630 feet tall? What national landmark is the tallest landmark in the United States? You might think something like the Statue of Liberty. Well, good guess but, no.You might also think it is a monument from Washington D.C. Wrong again. You're going to guess forever so, why don't I just tell you? My great American landmark is the St. Louis Arch.

The St. Louis Arch is located in St. Louis, Missouri. When I hear St. Louis I always think of baseball, and doesn't eveyone else? Well, hopefully by the end of this speech I can change that. The Arch is also part of the bigger Jefferson National Expansion Memorial operated by the National Park Service. The Arch is the tallest national monument in the United States at a total of 630 feet! It weighs a ton! 17,246 tons, to be exact. 900 tons of stainless steel was used to build the arch, more than any other project in U.S. history. The arch has sections, of course, 142 of them.

The Arch is better known as The Gateway to the West. It's called the Gateway to the West, because it shows us going west to explore more of our world to make our country bigger. Here's some history. The person who designed this wonderful monument is Eero Soarinenz. Construction of the Arch began on Feburary 12, 1963, and the last section of the Arch was put into place on October 28, 1965. The Arch cost 13 million dollars to build. The Transportation system or the trams were built at a cost of $3,500,000. A tram is like a pod capsule. There are 16 of them in all holding 5 people at the most in each tram. They start underground, then take a 4 minute ride that takes you to the top. Then when you are ready to leave you can get on another tram and go back down. Speaking of the trams, the trams carry over 25 million people and travel over 250,000 miles each year. I 've been to the St. Louis Arch when I was 7. I had to go up into the trams and I got freaked out because when I went up I felt very sick, and it was so high up! It was also very windy outside, and that freaked me out even more, because I knew that when winds get to 150 miles per hour, the monument sways 18 inches, 9 inches each way. It would have also terrifed me if I was one of the people last summer who got stuck inside the Arch for 3-5 hours. For maintenance and emergencies there are steps in each leg, and there are 1,076 in each of them. That's a lot of walking for an emergency! The St. Louis Arch is important to me because it shows eveyone how we all went west to find a home and have bigger land. It also shows how Louis and Clark went west to explore the unknown part of what is now a very BIG part of the U.S. To me the St. Louis Arch is a reminder of how our country grew in size spurred by two men on an expedition.

I've just told you a lot about the St. Louis Arch. Now whenever I hear St. Louis, Missouri, I now think of The St. Louis Arch. Why? because I now know all these facts! I know why it is important, who designed it and many more fun facts. All in all, to me the St. Louis Arch is the best U.S. monument ever!