Riverfront Trail

The Riverfront Trail at Gateway Arch National Park follows the west bank of the Mississippi River directly beneath the arch's iconic steel legs, providing the most intimate ground-level view of the 630-foot stainless steel monument that anchors the western edge of the St. Louis downtown riverfront. Walking beneath the arch reveals details invisible from a distance: the triangular cross-section of each leg, the massive concrete-and-steel foundation anchored deep in the Mississippi floodplain, and the way the two legs — built simultaneously from opposite ends — meet perfectly at the apex after rising 630 feet on identical curves.

The river walk connects the museum entrance beneath the arch to the riverboat docks where paddlewheel boats offer Mississippi River cruises, passing interpretive panels about the Lewis and Clark Expedition that departed from St. Louis in 1804, the 19th-century fur trade that made the city the gateway to the continent's interior, and the engineering feat of Eero Saarinen's arch design. At sunset, the stainless steel surface catches the western light and glows golden above the river. The Eads Bridge — the first steel bridge across the Mississippi, completed in 1874 — frames the view to the north. Bald eagles fish the river in winter from perches on the bridge structure.