December 28, 2006

December 28, 2006

Despite visiting the St. Louis area frequently my whole adult life, playing tourist was always low priority. Aimee and I now have the time to explore. After lunch today we drive downtown and park near the Gateway Arch. I have always enjoyed standing at the base of the Arch and looking up, especially at night when the polished stainless steel legs reflect the city lights. Aimee is not nearly so enamored with it.

While taking a picture of the Arch, we see the Old Courthouse building across the street. Never having been in it, we decide to investigate. Housed in two wings are some St. Louis history exhibits run by the National Park Service. The displays are mostly worthless but they do have a short movie that I find interesting. It tells the story of how St. Louis was the gateway to the West. First in the early 1800’s as the center of the booming beaver fur trade in the new Louisiana territory and later as the jumping off point for the millions heading west to seek their fortunes. By luck we happen to walk upstairs and find some interesting exhibits on wartime social unrest, and another on the pivotal Dred Scott court case that was first tried in this building. Dred Scot was a Missouri slave who sued for his freedom because of all the time he had spent in “free” states. He initially won but lost on appeal to the Supreme Court. This surprising landmark decision in 1857 probably helped make the Civil War inevitable.

Walking back to the Arch we stop underneath and enter the Jefferson National Expansion Museum. It is mostly about Lewis and Clark’s expedition and I have seen better. Just north of the Arch is Laclede's Landing and Eads Bridge, the oldest one spanning the Mississippi River. Completed in 1874, this engineering marvel was the first major bridge built using Steel instead of Cast Iron.