0 miles ridden – 0 feet climbed – hot and sunny

Today has been a fabulous rest day centred around three things – The old courthouse, the Gateway Arch, and a river cruise.

The old courthouse is a magnificent building constructed in the 1820s to support the importance of St Louis as the gateway to the West and the immense levels of commerce that entailed. But it is most famous for a legal case that some feel was a contributing element on the path to the American Civil War.

Dred Scott sued for his freedom beginning in 1847 in this courthouse. At the time many US States were ‘free’ meaning no slavery and the abolitionist movement was exerting pressure on the Federal government for total abolition – this often meant that new member States of the Union were required to be ‘free’ as a condition of entry. Dred Scott was taken by his owner to Illinois and Wisconsin where slavery was illegal and in that location he was at least theoretically free. However when he returned with his owner to Missouri he was quite clearly defined as a slave.

He brought his case to court in St Louis predicated on the fact that a ‘free’ man could not be enslaved and he won. However he remained a slave for the next 10 years while the appeals process continued right up to the US Supreme Court who finally ruled that as a black man he was not a citizen but was the property of his owner and the government did not have the authority to seize private property.

At this point Dred’s owners sold him for $1 (‘going rate’ at the time was around $1200) to  Taylor Blow (son of his original owner) who, in the very same court as the case started in, declared him, his wife Harriet and their two daughters to be free. It is difficult to reconcile the co-existance a sophisticated judicial system with something as primitive and barbaric as slavery.

The role of St Louis in the exploration and westward expansion across the continent, while very well documented in US history, did not have a monument, something which planners started to remedy in the 1930s. It was not until February 1963 that construction on the Gateway Arch started and remarkably the 630 feet/192 metre high structure was completed on 20 October 1965. It sits on the site of the old waterfront which had become extremely rundown and unsightly.

To reach the top you travel in small – and I mean small – 5 person pods no more than 4 feet/1.2m square which take 4 minutes to reached the top. The views are remarkable:

It is such a dominant feature and quite possibly the most stunning 20th Century man-made structure I have ever seen – awesome in the true sense of the word. It’s worth coming to St Louis just to visit it.

The river cruise gave us another perspective on the history of the city, the many bridges over it, and the considerable shipping industry that still uses the Mississippi River.

You can see that Gateway Arch however dominates every angle and deservedly too. Tomorrow we are back in the saddle for 108 miles to the city of Louisiana. Can’t wait…….