Apparently I see some things around the city that make me chuckle or stop and just look. Here are a few from the last month or so.
Tag: Gateway Arch
Riverboat, Docked on the Levee
You don’t see this much any more down on the Levee. It’s neat to see, but the ranks of riverboats once seen along here will never happen again.
Family Photos
I found some old pictures my family took from the Arch back in 1986-7; in the upper left, you can see the Cupples Warehouses sitting vacant. The first Kiener Plaza, now demolished, was just starting construction. The ash trees are now gone, but they were relatively young thirty years ago. Below, the Metropolitan Square Building…
Gateway Arch Renovations
They’re tearing down the Arch Garage. I think it is just over thirty years old. It’s going to be weird with it gone. Thanks to terrible (non-existent) signage, myself and about twenty tourists ended up on the wrong side of the construction fence. Thanks, guys! Luckily, there was this sign that pointed us in the…
The Riverfront, 1967
A reader was kind enough to give me several photos of her family’s trip on the Huck Finn back in the late 1960’s. It’s fascinating to see that the riverfront was already by that time largely cleared of buildings, just as it is today. The traces of St. Louis once being a great river town…
I-55 Under Construction
I wish I could go back in time and tell the mayor of St. Louis that he was making the biggest mistake of his life by building the interstates through the heart of the city. Sixty years later, our nation is addicted to a product that can only be procured through great expense or…
Riverfront
Update: The Riverfront was completely renovated and now has a different appearance. I never get tired of the view of downtown St. Louis from the river; maybe most people live out in the red brick neighborhoods out of sight of downtown, but looking at these glass and steel skyscrapers and one of the best monuments…
Corrosion, Gateway Arch
Much ado recently has been made of the corrosion of the Gateway Arch, now coming up on its 50th Anniversary. I don’t know why I had never noticed it before, but blemishes are clearly visible on the legs of the Arch. While Modernist structures are often regarded as “new,” it bears reminding that many of…