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Feature Article
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St. Louis Gateway Arch tallest
American monument, 630-feet.
Statue of Liberty 305 Feet Eiffel Tower 984.25 Feet
In 1947-1948 there was a nationwide competition to design a monument in St. Louis honouring western pioneers. The winning
design was a sleek arch by architect Eero Saarinen
Work began February 12, 1963, and was finished on October 28, 1965 at a total cost of less
than $15 million.
I wonder what you could build for that money today.?
In July 24, 1967 it was opened to the public. Visitors enter the arch from an underground visitor’s
center and can travel to the observation deck at the top in a 40-passenger tram that runs inside the legs.Five visitors
are seated in a capsule with a diameter
of 5' (1.5m) that travels at a rate of 240 feet per minute. Four minutes to the
observation deck.
Dick Bowser, a college dropout, was the tram designer. He had many problems to overcome and a simple
two part criteria.
1) A passenger volume of 3,500 people in an 8 hour day,
2) In no way could the conveyance
system distort the exterior of the arch.
Simple, but it had never been done before.
The
arch has 60-feet deep foundations. It is very stable and was built to withstand high winds and earthquakes. The structure
sways about one inch in a 20 mph wind; it is designed to sway up to 18 inches in 150 mile per hour winds
The two bases are equilateral triangles with 54 foot-long sides. At the top of the arch, the triangle
is only 17 feet long on each side.
There are 1,076 steps in each leg of the arch used only for maintenance and emergencies.
The legs have double walls of steel 3 ft. apart at ground level and 7-3/4 in. apart above the 400-foot
level. Up to the 300-foot mark the space between the walls is filled with reinforced concrete. Beyond that point steel stiffeners
are used. This design reduces sway because the bulk of the weight is in the concrete-filled lower
sections of the Arch.
Total Steel Weight 5,199 tons (4,644 metric tons)
Beyond my imagination.
No Skeleton
The complex engineering design and construction is completely
hidden from view. All that can be seen is its sparkling stainless steel outside skin and inner skin of carbon steel.
The Arch has no real structural skeleton. Its inner and outer steel skins, joined to form a composite structure, give it its
strength and permanence.
To prepare the site for the Arch foundations, the visitor center and museum, MacDonald Construction Company,
general contractor for the project, excavated 300,000 cu. ft. of earth and rock
. I wonder where they put it all.
Welding sections for the assembly of a triangle caused some deformation due to heat shrinkage of the welds.
Later, these sections were forced into the proper position for welding on the legs, causing a slight buckling of the stainless-steel
surface. After a study of the situation and of the welding operations, the steel erector decided to camber the
walls of each triangular section about 1-1/2
inches in 35 feet, so that the walls would be in the desired straight line
after the welding shrinkage occurred.
Now that is amazing accuracy. Absorbing one and a half inches over 35 ft. 3.8cm -
10.5m
Surveys at night
All survey work was done at night to eliminate distortion caused by the sun's rays striking one side of
the Arch while the other two sides were in shadow.Although it was estimated that 13 workers might lose their lives on
the project, there were no fatalities
Photos from the top
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4) Did You Know Quick Fact / Question
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Why
is wall paper paste so expensive.I paid $7.15c for a box that contained 135g. Just over 4 ozs. How is it made and what's in
it. Any one know.
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