St Louis Arch

When we left Springfield we had two options; take I-70 home by passing through St Louis or go north to I-80 to get home.  We picked the St Louis route and added a tour of the arch because touring the arch seems so obvious when in St Louis.

 

Tickets for the arch are picked up at the Old Courthouse.  I don't know why I didn't put it together while we were inside getting tickets but the Old Courthouse is where the Dred Scott case was heard.  Exiting the court house on the river side puts one next to this Dred Scott statue.  There are many incidents in the years leading up to the Civil War that can be called catalysts, the Dred Scott case is one of those moments.  So it was a pretty cool thing to happen upon and if we had more time I would have loved to take a full tour of the Old Courthouse which I'm sure would have had more information about the Dred Scott case.

I'm not a fan of heights but for some reason being up in the arch didn't bother me.  Maybe its because the viewing windows are pretty small and the huge crowd doesn't allow you much time to stare out the window and realize how high you are.  But here is the view of the courthouse from atop the arch.  Its hard to see but to the left of the main stairs is a black dot, which is the Dred Scott monument.

A bit fuzzy from zooming in but here is the monument.  I love playing with the amazing zoom on my camera and this may be one of the best examples of its zooming power.