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Start at 1. Old Courthouse

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Free audio tour6 stories

Gateway Arch grounds, Gateway Arch National Park, Missouri

A narrated walk across Gateway Arch National Park, from the Old Courthouse steps where Dred and Harriet Scott sued for their freedom, over the park that bridges the highway, to both legs of the Arch, the top of the Grand Staircase above the Mississippi and the South Pond: how a cleared riverfront became the nation's tallest monument, and how it was built.

11 min of audio · 1 miles · Read the transcript

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    Getting started

    1. Start in the right placeThis tour begins at The Old Courthouse. Start at the trailhead; the first story plays when you arrive.
    2. Let's hear itUse headphones or the phone speaker at a comfortable volume. Download the tour while you still have signal.
    3. Stories meet you thereYour phone's location starts each story automatically. Music flows straight into the narration. Keep this page open; it keeps the screen awake for GPS.
    4. You're ready to exploreDownload the tour first. Start on Fourth Street at the Old Courthouse's east steps, facing the Arch. The park's preferred parking is the Stadium East Garage at 200 S Broadway, a block south (prepay at iparkit.com/TheArch; on Cardinals home-game days buy by the night before or event rates apply). The grounds are open 5 am to 11 pm daily. The walk is about two-thirds of a mile on paved paths, with a few short flights of steps that have ramps nearby, and ends at the South Pond. It stays outside: the museum under the Arch is free, but the tram to the top needs a ticket and everyone enters through security at the west entrance (the legs are exit only).

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    Facts from the National Park Service (Gateway Arch National Park basic information, history, FAQ, fact sheet, architecture, landscape significance, Old Courthouse, Dred Scott, freedom suits, museum gallery and early St. Louis pages; Administrative History of Jefferson National Expansion Memorial) and the Gateway Arch Park Foundation (CityArchRiver timeline). Path geometry © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Music: Scott Joplin, Pleasant Moments, Joplin's own 1916 piano roll, via Wikimedia Commons (public domain). Narration is AI-generated. Not an official National Park Service product.