The Beautiful City Of St. Louis

If a casual observer were to take a stroll through the heart of the Beautiful city of St. Louis, the individual would notice the cracked and uneven streets that enduringly bear the weight of centuries old architectural masterpieces. Several free standing lamp posts flicker on just after dusk, and reveal the reddish glow of the patterned bricks that constitute the warping street. Clamorgan Alley is a street that reminds you of a simpler time, and this illusion is fully complete when a horse and buggy confidently enter and exit the alleyway. St. Louis has in the past been known as the leading hardware manufacturing center in the United States. It like many industrial cities became successful through large scale manufacturing and the resulting commerce that it creates. Witte hardware company was founded in 1849, the initial location of the factory was on 706 North Third street. In 1886 F.A. Witte and Co. purchased an additional building as an expansion property for the factory. Efficiency is certainly a key for any factory, and interestingly enough the next addition to the F.A. Witte and Co. properties was built from the ground up to be as economical as possible. It was completed in 1905, and boasted several electric elevators which in addition to other improvements, helped to modernize the entire operation on every level. Without a doubt, the St. Louis arch is the most well known man made landmark in Missouri. It has quite easily coined two memorable phrases. The first being “The Gateway To The West” according to Eero Saarinen the designer of the St. Louis Arch, and the second, “The exit from the east” In the words of Kansas City Born poet Calvin Trillin. Whichever way you look at it, the Gateway arch has always been an architectural marvel and should forever be regarded as a national treasure. It was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen in 1947, and was completed in 1965. The Arch is a mathematical marvel made to last, and has up to this point remained largely unaffected by damage sustained by storms, stunts, or design flaws. Perhaps the most detrimental design flaw is its enormous complexity. Because of this, the magnificent St. Louis Arch has never been cleaned due to the astronomical price tag naturally accompanying such a task. Despite these challenges, large scale inspection operations have been successfully executed. Resulting in a fair and much needed evaluation of its structural integrity. The results of the examination find the arch to be in great physical shape, but have noted that The Arch could definitely use a large scale cleaning operation.