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| Gateway Arch - Gateway Arch National Park - St. Louis, Missouri Copyright Andy Richards 2026 - All Rights Reserved |
LAST YEAR, I posted a series of blogs on National Parks. The ones I have visited. There are 63 officially designated "National Parks in the U.S." They range in size from over 13 million acres, to just under 100 acres. So lots of variability.
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| Market Street - St. Louis, Missouri As we approached the arch area, I saw this traffic light. I hoped for - and was rewarded with - a red light, stopping long enough for me to get the light centered in the arch with the Old Courthouse in the background - image below Copyright Andy Richards 2026 - All Rights Reserved |
GATEWAY ARCH National Park is the smallest National Park in the U.S., at just over 92 acres. Its grounds are on the west side of the Mississipi River near where St. Louis, Missouri's oldest buildings once stood; and very near the start of the Louis and Clark Expedition. Originally built as a monument to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Gateway Arch (namesake to the Park) is the tallest structure in the western hemisphere.
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| Gateway Arch and Old Courthouse - St. Louis, Missouri Copyright Andy Richards 2026 - All Rights Reserved |
THE PARK is one of the newest (4th newest at this writing) of the parks, officially "promoted" as a National Park from its former "national monument" status only in 2018. The new designation was not without controversy, as all other officially designated parks preserve and protect some natural area, resource or phenomena. Construction of the arch, considered the "gateway to the American West" began in 1963 and was completed roughly 2 years later; designated as a national monument.
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| Market Street - St. Louis, Missouri Copyright Andy Richards 2026 - All Rights Reserved |
LIKE MANY monuments around the world, the arch can be seen from all around St. Louis. In my shot from Market Street with the famous Old Courthouse framed in the arch, I wanted to show the context of the city street, leading down to the Missiippi. The sheer size of the arch creates the illusion of spanning the city street and driving through the arch. In reality, it does not span the street.
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| Another view of The Arch and The Old Courthouse from Market Street - St. Louis, Missouri Copyright Andy Richards 2026 - All Rights Reserved |
WHEN RESEARCHING the monument, I learned a couple things that hadn't ever entered my mind. It is illegal to fly an airplane through the arch. The FAA warned pilots shortly after completion in 1965 that such fly-throughs would result in not only a heavy fine, but immediate revocation of their license. At least 10 pilots done so over the years. It is said that the U.S. Secret Service forbids a sitting POTUS from going up in the arch because it is such a limited access space.
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| Gateway Arch - from the St. Louis Cathedral parking lot - St. Louis, Missouri Copyright Andy Richards 2026 - All Rights Reserved |
PHOTOGRAPHICALLY, THIS one is interesting - and potentially a challenge. This is a subject where either living in or near St. Louis would be advantageous. The arch itself is not a particularly photogenic subject, making it important to be able to provide some context or a unique perspective. I have seen some pretty cool images from a distance, and hope someday to be able to find and shoot from those spots. There, the photographer is able to add elements of foreground interest and, if fortunate enough to find a spot across the river, possibly nighttime shots with reflection opportunities. Up closer is going to call for a wide angle perspective and wide angle lens. I recenlty picked up a "travel" lens - a 20 - 40mm f2.8 lens (using a "full frame" camera/sensor). I will be traveling a fair amount this year in old European cities and among some landscape gardens, among other things, and I was hoping the 20 - 40 would give me the versatility I would like to get some of those close perspectives. So I was delighted to learn on this trip that for images like the arch from a close up vantage point, the lens performed very well and its field of view fit my eye and the subject.
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| Gateway Arch - St. Louis Cathedral entrance to Gateway National Park - St. Louis, Missouri Copyright Andy Richards 2026 - All Rights Reserved |
DODGING BETWEEN rain showers, I only really had one outside-of-the-vehicle opportunity. I approached the park (and the arch) from the old St. Louis Cathedral parking lot. There is an entrance there, and the red flagstone surface gave me an interesting lead-in to the image. This may have been a case where the cloudy skies worked to my advantage, as my (perhaps) favorite of the precious few images I did make looks as if the arch disappeared into the clouds. There was some green foliage in the foregound as well. Any one of those elements alone would probably not been enough. But put together, they gave me a (surprising) opportunity to make a reasonably nice image. When I get back I will try a number of different viewpoints and perspectives. For now - this is the one I had, other than the cell-phone snapshots from the "shotgun" seat in the car.
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| St. Louis Cathedral stands as a sentinel to one of the entrances to Gateway Arch National Park - St. Louis, Missouri Copyright Andy Richards 2026 - All Rights Reserved |
THERE WAS sun back there somewhere. Somewhere behind the clouds. I just know there was. 😏I have made it known here from time to time that I am not afraid to use Photoshop to achieve my "vision." This one is not AI though. Just good, old-fashioned "manipulation" using the sky replacement tools in photoshop to create an image that "could have been." One of my "Rich" buddies rolls his eyes whenever I bring up sky replacement. This one is for you Rich (and you know who you are). 😎
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| Gateway Arch (what "might have been") - Gateway Arch National Park - St. Louis, Missouri Copyright Andy Richards 2026 - All Rights Reserved |
THE GATEWAY Arch has been on my "bucket list" for a number of years. We have family living in suburban St. Louis, and other than a day-long business trip some nearly 40 years ago, we had never visited the area. That really has been inexcusable from the family standpoint. We are planning to remedy that situation, and along with that will undoubtedly come some additional opportunities for photography in a city that has no shortage of photo ops. We were there for only a couple days this trip and unfortunately, the single day we had allocated to a visit to the city and the arch was one in which Mother Nature determined would be a near rainout. Every image here was made between raindrops, or behind a car windshield. But I saw enough. I will be back! 😀
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