Today its shape is an American icon. But, had the votes gone another way, St. Louis’s Gateway Arch could easily have been a rectangular stone gate or a series of pylons representing historical events. Architect Eero Saarinen’s award-winning design, a combined landscape and monument that is a lasting testament to Thomas Jefferson’s westward expansion from the banks of the Mississippi River, was only one of 172 designs considered.
Saarinen’s 630-foot-tall freestanding steel arch is shaped in a catenary curve—the same curve a free-hanging chain takes when supported on both sides. However, his original design had the curve at a much less pronounced 590-foot height, with its bases being square rather than their current triangular form. In the years between winning the contest in 1948 and the beginning of construction in 1963, Saarinen reimagined his monument to become the sleeker, more modern structure we know today.
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