2008 St. Louis Regional

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Jessica Stidham

We tried to get the entire team to go to the arch last year but the adults wouldn't go for it. Maybe you can convince Andy this year. =]

A trip to the Arch exposes young and not-so-young technology fans to one of the finest and most inspirational projects of the mid-twentieth century. Soaring art meets cold mathematical precision in the form of an exquisite inverted catenary curve, its every element in strength maximizing compression. It was a bold architectural concept, and an even more audacious engineering effort -- the first tall structure to be built by pouring concrete while pre-stressing the reinforcement bars, its steel inner and stainless-steel outer skins rising in precisely assembled sections, its welds tested to permit no defects. All of this in the early 1960s.

The sight has inspired many visitors, but none more so than students of technology. Like the SR-71, it amazes us today when we recall that its engineers relied on a deep understanding of physical principles and performed the required calculations using slide-rules, all the while confident that the object of their efforts, something never tried before, was nevertheless within their grasp.