Riding To The Top Of The Gateway Arch In The Tram Car: What It's Like & What You Can See Of St Louis (2023)

Introduction

Riding To The Top Of The Gateway Arch In The Tram Car: What It's Like & What You Can See Of St Louis

When I was a kid growing up across the river from St. Louis, I got to ride the tram to the top of the Gateway Arch many times. Everytime relatives or friends from out of town came to visit, they wanted us to take them to see it, and I always got to go up with them. I never got tired of that view, or of witnessing the excitement, and even trepidation, of those going up in the Arch for the first time. But I had since moved about 100 miles from St. Louis, and hadn't taken the trip on the Arch Tram in several years. The grounds around the Arch, as well as the Visitor's Center and the Museum, underwent a major renovation and transformation that was officially revealed on July 3, 2018. We hadn't had the chance to see up close what they had done to the Gateway Arch National Park, so we took a trip to check it out. That visit also seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to take the tram ride once again! I was excited about trying it, and was looking forward to seeing if it was like I remembered. The experience was great, and the view from the top of the Arch is still as amazing as I remembered. It's an incredible structure and a marvel of design and engineering combined, making it one of the wonders of my world, at least!

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Video

Gonna go up in the Arch today! It's, been years since I've been up in the Arch.

I used to go all the time.

When I was a kid and I lived across the river in Cahokia.

So I'm gonna.

Do it again today.

You used to go in by walking to either one of the legs.

But.

Those are just exits: now.

Since, they've redone, the Arch, you actually enter from the top of the hill.

Downtown St.

Louis, is that way.

There's, the Old Courthouse.

So across from there.

This is the actual entrance to the Arch.

And before you get on the tram ride to the top of the Arch, right near the entrance to the Arch is a replica of the cars that you'd be riding in.

So.

You can actually get in, sit.

Down.

Try the seats out to see if it would be comfortable for you to go up in the ride.

It's about a four minute ride.

Up, three minute ride: down.

And! You could be sharing it with four other people...the cars hold five people at the most., If you're, a claustrophobic.

You can figure out if this is too close for you.

Maybe too cramped.

And you take the escalator down after you go through Security.

Everybody goes through Security.

And.

You walk through the museum area.

First to get to the north or south leg of the train.

And.

My ticket is for Adult, North Tram.

And before you get on the tram.

This kind of gives you an idea what you might see once you get up there.

Looking east to Illinois and looking west over to downtown St.

Louis.

This is the entrance that goes underground to the start of the tram.

As you're waiting in the queue to board the tram, there's some facts about the Arch.

Arch height is equal to the Arch width.

Now.

We're going to be heading right down this way.

If, you have any questions, feel free to ask, and I will be happy to answer them, because I am, after all, a tour guide.

And as such, a virtually endless font of mostly useless information.

Now, we'll be heading the rest of the way into this room.

The Finnish-American architect, Eero Saarinen submitted the design for the Gateway Arch.

The Arch is 630 feet, tall, that's 192, meters, 210, yards, 7560 inches, or about 63 stories.

It cost $13 million dollars to build.

That was big money in the 1960's, but in today's currency, that would be closer to $200 million dollars.

They.

Take your picture against a blue screen, give you a card, and we go.

Downstairs.

I got Tram Car 5.

There's, not too many of us, so I may be by myself.

And that compares the height of the Arch to other things, other monuments.

There's different things showing on each door, but I.

Imagine eventually everything will show on your door.

And.

You can hear the tram coming down.

Now.

So those people will get off and go up the stairs and then we'll get in.

Please keep clear of the door.

The Tram door is now closing.

Enjoy your trip to the top.

Here.

We go! No windows on the sides or the back.

But out the front door where you came in there is a window.

Not, much to see.

And, the capsule adjusts itself to level every once in a while.

It goes up.

A little ways, starts to tilt, and then adjusts back to level.

A little bit different feeling.

There's stairs that go up., There's somebody's workbench, area.

And, the capsule's, a little small...not real big.

But, unless you're very claustrophobic, I think you can probably handle it.

Here's a quick look, around.

I'm sitting in the back seat, and there's two seats on the left, two on the right.

That's.

Just some vents up there.

Those are vents.

And.

If there was five people in here, we'd probably be elbow to elbow.

We're slowing down.

It's only about 17 feet wide at the top.

And we're adjusting more frequently as we're getting towards the top.

Here.

We go.

We're heading up to the top.

So.

You can see.

There is room for a lot of people up here.

And.

This is the Missouri side.

Missouri side.

And, there's where we entered in the Arch complex right, there.

There's, the Courthouse.

And.

There's the St.

Louis Cardinals Busch Stadium.

Way out there is the Enterprise Center and Union Station.

That's Kiener Plaza right there, where the skating rink, is.

There's, the dome...America's Center.

You have a really good view up: here.

Wow! And.

If it wasn't a cloudy, hazy, foggy day, whatever that is out there, you could see even further.

This is the Illinois side.

Down.

There is the riverfront, St.

Louis Riverfront.

There's, the Gateway Arch Riverboat.

There's, the Casino Queen right across the river.

There's, the Gateway Geyser.

There's, the Poplar Street Bridge, and that's interstate 64 going across.

Over.

There is East St.

Louis.

Back.

That way is Cahokia.

And, of course, the mighty Mississippi.

And plenty of windows for everybody to get a chance to look out.

And, you can stay for a while, or as soon as you come up, you can go back down on the next Tram.

Whatever you want to do.

So, it's a great view of the sights of St.

Louis from up here.

I'm gonna go down.

Now, and I was supposed to go to car #4, and stand on the yellow, paint.

So.

There will be another car coming up, soon.

And, the trip down is faster.

Three minutes versus four minutes.

So should be a pretty good ride.

What.

With the extra speed and the shifting back and forth.

And we're headed down.

And.

It does feel a lot faster.

It's a little bit more of a thrill-ride going down.

A little more speed.

A little more fun! And when I was up in the Arch.

I didn't really feel like I was way up, high.

It didn't trigger any fear of heights or anything like that.

I.

Guess it's because you're just enclosed in this big metal structure, and you feel pretty safe.

I enjoyed my look around at the top.

I.

Was there maybe 15 minutes, and then I came back down.

Shift.

Shift.

Shift.

That was fun!.