Wednesday, January 05, 2011

Mr Arch, I presume...

Recently Paul brought me to visit the St Louis (Gateway) Arch. It was pretty sweet. I'm a fan of architecture so that was a cool one, though I am forced to say that every single recorded tour video clip they had in the place was unbearably, hilariously overdramatic and their "Museum of Westward Expansion" sucked some giant ass. No offense intended. Nothing was labeled! They had what appeared to possibly be a giant ship's wheel but who could tell because there was no label! Also they had weird creepy animatronic historical figures who would jerkily recite some bit of authentic communication. Really creepy. I think they were so impressed with their round design, their spooky robots, and their stuffed horse and cow, that they forgot what a museum is actually supposed to be like.
Got to see a picture of, and a short video on, Mr Louis Arch himself (that was of course, before he was sainted) on our way to the top. If you've never been, you ride up to the top of the Arch in weird little round tram cars, with a tiny four foot door, and five little stools inside. Everything is whitewashed, and I could not help but feel that I had stepped into a late 19th-early 20th century industrial sci-fi. Very surreal.
The view was pretty awesome at the top of the Arch, 630 feet (and we made sure to stand at the highest point for a minute.) This may sound silly, but I had never thought to wonder what the Arch is actually made of. Well it's stainless steel, and all the panels in the light are actually quite pretty. I can also now say that I've spent some time in Missouri, so I can check that state off the list. Good year so far.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Too bad we didn't have time to watch any of the 45-minute-ish documentaries they play there about the Arch's construction. I have no doubt their narration is of comparable quality.

Ryan said...

For the briefest of moments I thought Mr. Louis Arch was really the architect, and I thought my GOD, that's SO PERFECT!

Anonymous said...

Hard to believe the guy behind us in line was spreading even more Arch-related misinformation, right?

Anonymous said...

I think you should turn out a "Biography of Mr. Louis Arch- subtitled (before he was sainted)"
this made me laugh for days...
though some folks may take it seriously- like they do Jonathon Swifts "Modest Proposal"
mean old mammy