Gateway Arch National Park, formerly known as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial until 2018, is an national park located in St. Louis, Missouri, near the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The Gateway Arch and its immediate surroundings were initially designated as a national memorial by Presidential executive order on December 21, 1935, and redesignated as a national park in 2018. The park is maintained by the National Park Service. The national park consists of the Gateway Arch, a steel catenary arch that has become the definitive icon of St. Louis; a 91-acre park along the Mississippi River on the site of the earliest buildings of the city; the Old Courthouse, a former state and federal courthouse where the Dred Scott case originated; and the 140,000 sq ft museum at the Gateway Arch. The Gateway Arch, known as the "Gateway to the West", is the tallest structure in Missouri. It was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen and structural engineer Hannskarl Bandel in 1947 and built between 1963 and October 1965. It stands 630 feet tall and 630 feet wide at its base. The legs are 54 feet wide at the base, narrowing to 17 feet at the arch. There is a unique tram system to carry passengers to the observation room at the top of the arch.—Wikipedia—This image was processed as an HDR (High Dynamic Range) composition.
The Old St. Louis County Courthouse was built as a combination federal and state courthouse in St. Louis, Missouri. Missouri's tallest habitable building from 1864 to 1894, it is now part of Gateway Arch National Park and operated by the National Park Service for historical exhibits and events. It was designed by the firm of Lavielle and Morton, the first architecture firm west of the Mississippi River above New Orleans. The last slave auction held at the Old Courthouse took place in 1861. When St. Louis County, Missouri and the city split in 1877, the courthouse became city property. The courthouse was abandoned by the city in 1930 after it built the Civil Courts Building. In 1935, during the Great Depression, St. Louis voted for a bond issue to raze nearly 40 blocks around the courthouse in the center of St. Louis for the new Gateway Arch National Park, which was then known as Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. The courthouse formally became part of the new monument area in 1940. The National Park Service maintains four history galleries on St. Louis and NPS offices within. The courthouse building was the tallest building in Missouri and St. Louis until 1896 when Union Station was built. It remained the largest structure in the national monument until the Gateway Arch was built in 1965. In 1846 the slave Dred Scott sued for his and his wife's freedom as they had been held as slaves in free states. All of the trials, including a Missouri Supreme Court hearing, were held in the Old Courthouse. The case was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford, which ruled against the Scotts, saying they did not have grounds as citizens to sue.—Wikipedia—This image was processed as an HDR (High Dynamic Range) composition.
Animals Always is the largest sculpture at any public zoo in the United States. It's 130 feet long, 36 feet high and 100 tons of Cor-Ten steel. The sculpture features over 60 animals peeking out from behind sculpted trees, ferns and other plant life. Many of the animals, fish and plant life depicted are also endangered to inspire future generations to protect our natural world. Created by sculptor Albert Paley, who has completed more than 50 works for both public and private institutions over his 30 year career. Other Paley pieces can be found in the permanent collections of major museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Forest Park is a public park in western St. Louis, Missouri. It is a prominent civic center and covers 1,326 acres. Opened in 1876, the park has hosted several significant events, including the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904 and the 1904 Summer Olympics. It is known as the "Heart of St. Louis" and features a variety of attractions, including the St. Louis Zoo, the St. Louis Art Museum, the Missouri History Museum, and the St. Louis Science Center. Since the early 2000s, it has carried out a $100 million restoration. The park's acreage includes meadows and trees and a variety of ponds, manmade lakes, and freshwater streams. For several years, the park has been restoring prairie and wetlands areas of the park. It has reduced flooding and attracted a much greater variety of birds and wildlife, which have settled in the new natural habitats.— stlzoo.org—Wikipedia
