Our first stop was at the "Old Courthouse Museum". Construction began in 1839 and continued through several transitions until 1862 and was Missouri's tallest habitable building from 1864 - 1894. It has four wings and a beautiful three storey cupola dome at the centre. It has a storied history related to slavery. It was a public forum as well as a courthouse. Slaves also were auctioned on the steps. Abolitionists and slavery advocates held rallies in the courthouse to debate the slavery issue.
An interesting fact that the Park Ranger told us was that there is no echo in the immense centre hall due to the fact that the floor is limestone, which absorbs sound.
This pic shows a model of the building. It was hard to take a pic outside!
After touring the Courthouse, we walked across the street to the Visitor Centre and the Museum at the Gateway Arch. It is the world's tallest arch, a 630 foot monument clad in stainless steel and was built between 1963 - 1965. It is built in the form of a weighted catenary arch. Beneath it is the fabulous museum which traces the story of the Native Americans, Explorers, Pioneers and Rebels who made America possible.
The Museum has a "mock-up" of the capsule to give you an idea of the size.
We rode the five seat capsule up the north side to the top where we got out to admire the views and take some photos on this beautiful day, then rode back down the south side. What an experience!
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| At the top! |
View if the Old Courthouse on the right and Busch Stadium upper left.
Then it was lunch time and Bill directed the bus driver to take us to "Fast Eddie's Bon Air" in Alton which was founded in 1921. It was an interesting place with 400 seats, a 'dive bar' which serves an assortment of grilled burgers, shish kebabs, Bratwurst and shrimp, all sold at the same low prices as when they were added fifteen years ago. We had a 1/2 pound burger for $1.99 and fries for $.99. Noisy but quite the atmosphere.
As we exited the "bar" after lunch, a sudden thunderstorm developed and we had to run to the bus!
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| The 27 lock system on the Mississippi River That concluded our day of touring |
Our next stop was the Melvin Price Locks and Dam, which is Lock 27 of 28 on the Mississippi River. We watched a movie "The Power of the River" which explained the construction and operation of locks, which allow the passage of shipping vessels. We toured the National Great River Museum but were not able to descend into the dam due to the weather (which has turned sunny).
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