Vision
To complete the vision of a memorial on each side of the Mississippi River, the Gateway Geyser was designed and constructed by St. Louis–based Hydro Dramatics. It was completed in 1995 at a cost of $4 million. Three 800-horsepower (600 kW) pumps power the fountain, discharging 8,000 U.S. gallons of water per minute (50 L/s) at a speed of 250 feet (76 m) per second. The fountain has an axial thrust of 103,000 pounds-force (460 kN); water is jetted out of the 6-foot (1.8 m)-tall aerated nozzle at a pressure of 550 pounds per square inch (3.8 MPa).
On June 17, 2005, ownership of the Gateway Geyser and its 34 acre (14 ha) site was transferred to the Metro East Park and Recreation District. The fountain now serves as the cornerstone for the Malcolm W. Martin Memorial Park, which opened officially in June 2009.
The Geyser was illuminated for the first time on October 28, 2005, in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the St. Louis Arch.
On September 16, 2006, ground was broken on the Mississippi River Overlook project on the park grounds. The 40-foot (12 m)–high overlook platform provides a scenic view of the Gateway Geyser, the Mississippi River, and the St. Louis Arch and skyline. It opened in the spring of 2008.
The geyser has three scheduled eruptions every day from April 15th to October 15th, at noon, 3 PM and 6 PM. No eruptions are scheduled from October 16th through April 14th.
Read more about this topic: Gateway Geyser
Famous quotes containing the word vision:
“Thinking is seeing.... Every human science is based on deduction, which is a slow process of seeing by which we work up from the effect to the cause; or, in a wider sense, all poetry like every work of art proceeds from a swift vision of things.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)
“A novel is a mirror carried along a high road. At one moment it reflects to your vision the azure skies at another the mire of the puddles at your feet. And the man who carries this mirror in his pack will be accused by you of being immoral! His mirror shews [sic] the mire, and you blame the mirror! Rather blame that high road upon which the puddle lies, still more the inspector of roads who allows the water to gather and the puddle to form.”
—Stendhal [Marie Henri Beyle] (1783–1842)
“In clear weather the laziest may look across the Bay as far as Plymouth at a glance, or over the Atlantic as far as human vision reaches, merely raising his eyelids; or if he is too lazy to look after all, he can hardly help hearing the ceaseless dash and roar of the breakers. The restless ocean may at any moment cast up a whale or a wrecked vessel at your feet. All the reporters in the world, the most rapid stenographers, could not report the news it brings.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)