The Gateway Arch is even better at kid height. Start below ground in the free Museum at the Gateway Arch, where six galleries of westward-expansion stories are built to be touched, then pick up a Junior Ranger booklet — kids who complete the activities earn a badge from a real National Park Service ranger, sworn in under the Arch itself.
Then the main event: the tram ride to the top, in retro-futuristic pods that climb the hollow legs to windows 630 feet over the Mississippi. On clear days you can see 30 miles; on every day, kids press the glass and argue happily about which speck is their house. Book tram tickets ahead on weekends, and finish with the riverfront lawns and the Old Courthouse across the park.
It is the St. Louis rite of passage, earned one badge at a time.
Gateway Arch National Park is on the downtown riverfront. Tram tickets at gatewayarch.com; park info at nps.gov/jeff.
