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Gateway Arch National Park

Nature & parks
In St. Louis, Missouri
0.7 mi from Route 66
National Register of Historic Places

Gateway Arch National Park, run by the National Park Service in St. Louis, MO, ranks as the country's smallest national park, at about 193 acres. It began in 1935 as a memorial to the Louisiana Purchase and the push west, and it takes in the Gateway Arch, the Old Courthouse, where Dred Scott's case began, a riverside park and a large museum. For Route 66 drivers it is the classic St. Louis stop.

What is Gateway Arch National Park?

The park strings together four pieces along the Mississippi. The steel Gateway Arch is the centerpiece, with a big museum at its base covering some 140,000 square feet. A park runs along the river on ground where the first buildings of St. Louis stood. A few blocks inland, the Old Courthouse served as both a state and a federal court.

Small as it is, the park is tiny even by the standards of its nearest rival: it is less than 2 percent the size of Hot Springs National Park, the next smallest.

History of Gateway Arch National Park

On December 21, 1935, a secretarial order created the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial here. It was meant to honor three things: the Louisiana Purchase and the explorers and settlers who moved west after it, the first civil government set up west of the Mississippi, and the national argument over slavery that the Dred Scott case brought to a head.

The Arch was finished on October 28, 1965. In 2018 the whole site took on its present name. The setting also nods to exploration history, since the Lewis and Clark Expedition began not far away.

Visiting Gateway Arch National Park: tips

Plan on at least half a day if you want the Arch, the museum and the Old Courthouse. Restrooms are on site, and the park reports wheelchair access and activities suited to kids.

Two more downtown stops sit about half a mile away: the National Blues Museum and the Eugene Field House, where the lawyer for Dred Scott once lived. That makes a neat pairing with the Old Courthouse, where the case started.

Practical info

Address: 11 North 4th Street, Saint Louis, MO 63102
Phone: +1 314-655-1600
Website: nps.gov/jeff
Hours: Daily 5 am–11 pm
On site & nearby

Sources: OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Wikidata · official site — may be outdated. Suggest a fix

Where to eat near Gateway Arch National Park

All diners →

Diner & restaurant
Crown Candy Kitchen
St. Louis, MO · 2.0 mi from Gateway Arch National Park
An old-fashioned soda fountain and candy shop in Old North St. Louis, known for handmade malts.
Diner & restaurant
Ted Drewes
St. Louis, MO · 7.1 mi from Gateway Arch National Park
A family-run St. Louis frozen custard stand from 1929, known for concretes served upside down.