When I was in middle school, my family went on vacation to St. Louis, Missouri, mostly to see a Cardinals game check out the city for a few days. While we were there, I randomly became obsessed with the Gateway Arch. This building affected me in a positive way by giving me a greater interest in architecture and, more specifically, how an arch that large could have been constructed without collapsing. Seeing this building and learning about how it was built likely sparked my interest in engineering and construction.

Also, while in St. Louis, I was impressed as to how the arch stood out so prominently in the skyline of the city, signifying the importance of its message. That message, and the purpose of the building in general, is what I really took an interest in, because I felt it must have been significant enough to require a monument of that size. The idea that it was constructed to signify the westward expansion of the United States and to show the growth and prosperity of the nation had me thinking about how a lot of architecture and monuments have been used to portray events and accomplishments of the past. Further, when I went to the top of the arch, you could pretty much see the entire city of St. Louis and could figure out exactly how the city grew around one central point. It felt like looking into the past, looking over the river that Lewis and Clark explored and into the city that exploded as a trading outpost on the Mississippi River.

I have always enjoyed history and learning about the past, so this building influenced me positively by immersing me within the city’s long and unique history. Further, the engineering feat that it must have been to accomplish this monument so long ago inspired me to take an interest in construction and engineering and is part of the reason that I am majoring in construction science right now.