Arches are some of the strongest and most striking features in the architecture world today. It is the basis of countless landmarks – from ancient Roman aqueducts to the Arc de Triumphe in France. It has become a symbol of new beginning; a gateway towards freedom and prosperity. Even mother nature herself favors them, with many natural formations prominently featured at Arches National Park in Utah. The steel arch has become a cornerstone of American architecture.
Arches Across America
Here at Arch Buildings, we recognize the unique properties that this structural formation offers. In the spirit of building with American made steel, and to highlight the benefits of arch structures, we wanted to showcase some of the most famous steel arch structures across the country.
- St. Louis Arch – St. Louis, Missouri
Also known as the Gateway Arch, this 630-foot monument is the tallest arch in the world, the tallest man-made monument in the Western Hemisphere, and Missouri’s tallest accessible building. It is also the tallest stainless steel monument in the world and used the most amount of stainless steel in any one project in history (over 1,600,000 lbs). Each wall consists of a stainless steel skin covering a sandwich of two carbon-steel walls with reinforced concrete in the middle from ground level to 300 feet, with carbon-steel to the peak. Construction of the arch was completed in 1965 and the monument opened to the public in 1967.
- New River Gorge Bridge – Fayette County, West Virginia
Spanning more than 3,000 feet across the New River Gorge in the Appalachian Mountains, this bridge features a 1,700 foot steel arch and was the world’s longest single-span arch bridge for many years and is now the third longest. The roadway of the New River Gorge Bridge is nearly 900 feet above the New River and is one of the highest vehicular bridges in the world, and the third highest in the United States. With an average of 16,000 vehicles crossing the bridge per day, it is one of the most important and striking landmarks in the state. This bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is featured on one side of the West Virginia state quarter.
- Fremont Bridge – Portland, Oregon
At 2,154 feet long, this tied-arch bridge is the longest bridge span in Oregon and the second longest tied-arch bridge in the world. It carries Interstate 405 and US 30 traffic between downtown and North Portland where it intersects with Interstate 5. The center span of the bridge, where the rib of the arch is above the deck of the bridge, is 902 feet long. It was fabricated in California and assembled downstream at Swan Island. After assembly, it was floated on a barge 1.7 miles to the construction site. On March 16, 1973, the 12,000,000 lb steel arch span was lifted 170 into the air using 32 hydraulic jacks. At the time, it was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the heaviest lift ever completed.
America Loves Steel Arch Buildings
Steel is and has always been the backbone of American infrastructure. Bridges, skyscrapers, monuments; all of them employ the strongest material ever created by humans to celebrate their ingenuity and achievement. Follow in the footsteps of the people who built this country, and choose a steel structure from Arch Buildings for your next construction project.
