Spirit of St. Louis?

St. Louis, the "Gateway to the West," wanted a gate to mark the spot. The citizens offered $125,000 in prizes for the best ideas. Last week the winning design was announced: a stainless steel, streamlined, 590-ft.-high arch to rise beside the Mississippi on a site which was formerly occupied mostly by old warehouses. The arch, with a "funicular elevator and observation corridor," had first reared in the mind of a talented Michigan architect named Eero Saarinen, who, with his father Eliel, is a frequent winner of architectural competitions. His prize this time: $40,000 and a warm recommendation to Washington. (Congress must approve the "Jefferson National Expansion Memorial," as it is to be called, and put up most of the estimated $30 million cost.)

Saarinen's plans, drawn up with the help of his wife (a sculptor) and three aides, called for a tree-dotted, 80-acre area around the arch with two museums, an open-air theater, a tea terrace, a frontier village and five sculptural monuments. The arch itself, said proud St. Louisans, would mark their city like the Eiffel Tower or the Washington Monument.

There were also a few dissenters, who feared that St. Louis might come to be known as "the Wicket City."

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