Funding Construction of the Gateway Arch

Description

In 1953, the Committee on House Administration considered bills related to long-postponed funding for the construction of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial on the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri. Although the federal government demolished existing buildings and set aside land for the memorial in 1935, the space remained empty. In anticipation of the upcoming 150th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase, a nonprofit group advocating for the memorial hoped to spur Congress to action. The group provided the committee with these photos of the memorial site at various stages before construction. Construction on the Eero Saarinen–designed monument finally started in 1963. The Gateway Arch, as it came to be known, was completed in 1965.