![]() ![]() Visitors are greeted by a high-definition video experience where you might face a charging herd of buffalo, a river boat paddle-wheeling up the Missouri River or a wagon train rumbling across the plains. Louis is here and why it was important and why it was a jumping off point for so many settlers west of here, so people can understand why this historic (Gateway Arch) monument is sitting where it is,” explained Moraczewski. Louis from its beginning as a French fur trading outpost to today and includes individual galleries on significant eras. The updated museum has been increased by nearly a third and now includes nearly 150,000 total square feet. The other showpiece of the expansion is the enlarged museum, which will remain free to visitors. “We have a beautiful new entrance that brings all natural light directly into the museum space,” said Moraczewski, and “it has brought that connection back into the city again.” Entrance had been via stairways at the structure’s legs, which now serve as exit points. One of the highlights is the new entrance into the arch, a light-gathering disk with a westward facing crescent entryway. A multi-story parking garage which once marked the north end of the park’s riverfront property is now a rolling, 7½-acre park crisscrossed with walking and biking paths. About 2,400 trees have been added along with additional walking and biking paths. View Gallery: Most visited national parks, monuments and memorials in 2017 “We had multiple lanes of traffic people had to cross and what we had a lot of times was people hiring taxis just to get to the arch grounds.” “It’s really a new connection to the city,” Moraczewski explained. The highway and traffic now flow beneath a greenway land bridge that park officials have dubbed “Park Over the Highway.” Traffic noise is absent and the greenway shimmers like a well-manicured lawn. But until the recent renovations they were separated by Interstate 44 and its roaring traffic. The arch and courthouse were always part of the memorial park complex. A statue of Dred and Harriet Scott is located near the courthouse steps. Supreme Court and helped propel the county into the Civil War. ![]() It rose to legal fame as the beginning point for the Dred Scott case, which was eventually decided by the U. The courthouse was built in 1839 and - like the arch today - dominated the city skyline. The multi-million dollar upgrades and improvements includes a new entrance into the arch, an expanded museum and sweeping landscape changes.Īn expansive green space now stretches from the arch to the Old Courthouse, another St. But it is hardly the park’s only attraction. The 630-foot stainless steel-clad arch, which was designed by architect Eero Saarinen in the 1940s and completed in 1965, dominates the national park site. The Gateway Arch National Park, which partly overlays the footprint of the original French settlement from the mid 1700s, was known as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial from its establishment in 1935 until the name was changed earlier this year. They touched nearly everything else, and visitors will reap the benefits. “We weren’t here to touch our great historical architectural feat.” “The Gateway Arch is a monument that is known around the world as one of the great monuments that has ever been built,” Moraczewski added. The grand opening is scheduled for July 3. “What we did is improve the environment around it.” “We didn’t touch the arch,” said Moraczewski, executive director of the Gateway Arch Park Foundation, describing the CityRiverArch Project that guided the makeover of the 91-acre Gateway Arch National Park which borders downtown St. LOUIS - After helping spearhead a $380 million project to retool one of the world’s most iconic monuments, Eric Moraczewski would like to make one thing clear. ![]() View Gallery: The Gateway Arch gets a major overhaul ![]()
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