Missouri

Missouri
Our final stop on the trip was the St. Louis Arch in Missouri. Although we were on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, we had a great view.
 The Malcolm W. Martin Memorial Park is on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River from the Arch. It provides an excellent view of the St. Louis skyline. The park has a 43 foot tall concrete viewing platform with ramps to the top that were easy to climb. The viewing platform is free, as is park admission.

The park also has a geyser fountain which is the tallest man made freshwater fountain in the world. Known as the Gateway Geyser, the fountain runs from April through October and fires a fountain of water as tall as the Arch itself four times a day.

The park is named after Malcolm Martin, who was a St. Louis lawyer and philanthropist with a dream of building a companion park on the Illinois side so people could properly view the Arch.

Martin organized the Gateway Center of Metropolitan St. Louis in 1987 to raise funds and build the Illinois park. The park became his life's work, and he used some of his own money to purchase land. He died in 2004, before the platform was completed, but his final gift of $5 million dollars saw the project completed. A statue of Martin sits on the top of the platform, gazing fondly at the view he wanted everyone else to have.