Thought Imports:

Our family recently visited the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO, which is included in a property also known officially as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Our son, who is in college, expressed interest, so we made the stop. At first, we saw many people parked illegally in front of the monument, running up to touch it, take pictures, walk around the nearby park, or rest on its width-spanning concrete steps, or grand staircase.

We decided this time not to pay the $10/person admission to ride the unique tram capsule elevator train to the top, but to instead simply pay for parking in the garage adjacent to the monument, and found its elevator to the park, which is also very near the base of the Arch, to be quite handy. We took pictures of this impressive structure with family, and proceeded down to the museum underground, directly beneath the Arch.

The Museum of Westward Expansion is free, just as is access to the park area, the Arch and the Courthouse. Visitors to the Museum and Arch, however, must pass through security checkpoints, as in airport access security. Once inside, the museum’s several outstanding historical murals, including the brick mural of Mount Rushmore deftly hewn from brick, catch one’s eye. Its layout is by year in concentric semicircles from its center to the walls, which feature 33 photo-murals chronicling the Lewis & Clark Expedition that were taken on each log entry’s very site, month and date. Many artifacts of life in that era plus displays of flora and fauna complete the museum visitors’ historical learning experience. Materials are available for teachers to organize an informative and fun field trip for students. Park Rangers may also be enlisted to provide 45-minute guided tours any day of the week when notified 30 days before a group’s visit. Call a reservationist at (314) 655-1700 between 8AM and 4PM central with a requested time, and leave info on group, leader, number of children and adults attending.

The Odyssey’s giant-screen “Lewis and Clark” movie, Tucker Theaters’ Monument to the Dream” documentary film, tram ride to and from the top of the Arch, Riverboat cruises and National Park Service walking tour all require admission fees. You will find these listed when you follow the first link in the next paragraph.

Here are some links, such as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, which provides fairly complete information about the monument, a JNEM map, its probable expansion, and to information about the Gateway Arch, which is actually one of the links within ”Core of Discovery St. Louis“, which showcases the Arch and surrounding attractions in the city, and is a word play on Thomas Jefferson’s commissioned “Corps of Discovery”, the Expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and his chosen partner, William Clark, to explore the Louisiana Purchase.

Here are two photos of the Arch, taken from different angles by our son: