![]() ![]() If an elephant ate 300 pounds per day, how many days would it take before the elephant was too fat to come down? ![]() Or one elephant and 49,770 cheeseburgers in the arch. If 80 men and 80 women were all at the top of the Arch at once, that’s 28,440 pounds! That’s like, 2 elephants or… 99,540 cheeseburgers! That’s a lot of people! I know it’s made from concrete and stainless steel but still… wow!Īccording to information from the CDC, the average man weighs 198lbs, while the average woman weighs 168lbs. The guide told me up to 160 people can fit at the top of the Arch! You’re allowed to spend as much time as you want taking pictures or talking with a National Park guide. Visitors can see the Old Courthouse, Busch Stadium, and the Mississippi River through small windows placed along the tapered walls. The view from up there gives a top-of-the-world glimpse over the whole city. The ride is actually part of the fun as your ears tend to pop as they acclimatize to the change in pressure. Packed in with your family or newfound strangers like a can if Vienna sausages, the tram will carry you swiftly up the inside of the Arch, like an elevator on a slant, and deliver you high above the city. The doors open and suddenly you’re faced with a very cramped, egg-shaped capsule with five seats, a low ceiling and the smell only 53 years of continual use can provide. Me- “When do I leave? Also, what is the inflight meal?” Me –“Yes! I rode to the top of the Arch recently!” I should email my resumé to Elon Musk for consideration to join SpaceX. I’m no astronaut, Although I’ve seen the movie Apollo 13 so I’m almost there, practically, but waiting on the staggered stairway behind metal bars, in anticipation of the shuttle doors opening to reveal our capsule had me feeling like Tom Hanks ready to board a space shuttle. They’ll be the ones to put you in groups for your journey to the sky! No elephants can fit in the tram. Venture through security to the boarding entrance and wait for instructions from an energetic National Park guide. Pro Tip: Buy your tickets beforehand so you don’t have to wait in line.Ī ticket for the tram ride and access to the museum costs $13. A 4 minute tram ride gently pulls passenger up the steep incline, like the first 30 seconds of any rollercoaster, but without the usual thrill-seeking decent that follows. 63 stories of stairs seems so daunting, it’s enough for me to just buy a postcard at the giftshop and turn around to do something more my speed- like sitting! And in fact, sitting is how you traverse the welded-steel legs of the Arch, all the way to the top. There is over 25,000 tons of concrete below the foundation alone! That’s as much as 3,570 elephants!įirstly, you don’t actually climb to the top. Given that the Arch National Park grounds were recently renovated and just opened back up this Summer 2018, I took it upon myself to refresh my memory, climb to the top and get a view of my beloved city. This was so long ago now, my memory can’t recall any details, save for the waiting in long lines and getting bored- wrapping those retractable, seatbelt-straps used for crowd control around my arm and accidently tugging the metal stanchion to the hard, linoleum floor with a loud CLANG! Kids will be kids. Family from out of town would come and we would have to do the touristy things, so I would go. Louis and remember visiting the arch when I was a little kid. Turning to view the city, it almost feels like the arch is two massive arms, spread open to both embrace the city and present the spirit of western expansion. Welded- steel segments encase heavy concrete that form the foundation of two legs that lean towards one another to meet in the middle at its apex. Standing at its base, the Arch juts up into the sky like an alien boomerang with both ends anchored to the ground. ![]()
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