My sisters, husband, and I are in our 60's and had never experienced a ride to the top of the Gateway Arch. When a family wedding had us traveling to St. Louis for the weekend, we decided to add The Arch to our itinerary. We are SO GLAD that we did. It was an incredible experience.

It is best to get tickets online before you arrive, especially if you will be visiting during popular hours. We were coming from the Cincinnati area and arriving in the afternoon, so we chose a 5:50 PM reservation. I don't think the afternoon slots are as popular as the early or mid-day times, although all 8 elevator cars on our trip up seemed to have people in each.

We arrived well before our scheduled trip to the top. We had been concerned about how to spend all that time...until we took the elevator/escalators downstairs and discovered an awesome museum. It tells the story of the westward movement and the settling of St. Louis, along with lots of information about the construction of the Arch. There is SO MUCH information and interactive displays that I wish we'd had more waiting time.

There is also a large gift shop. We checked it out before going up, getting ideas for purchases but saving the actual purchases for when we came back down. We didn't want to add more stuff to the tight elevator space than was necessary.

The elevator cars look like little barrels, with five seats squeezed inside. It can be a tight fit if you are a tall or large person. There is an example of the car on display in the entrance lobby. Try it out beforehand. We made adjustments in the seating after we experimented with our group in the lobby, placing the smaller, more agile family members in the back, entering first. We reserved the two seats just inside the door for our taller family members and those with mobility issues. The opening is only 4 feet tall so there is bending and stepping up needed to get in. My sister kept bumping her head on the top of the "barrel" after she was seated. If you are not comfortable with steps, notify the attendant. They assign cars 1 and 2 to those with mobility issues. Less steps are needed to get to and from these cars at the bottom as well as at the top.

The ride up and down is NOT scary. It's fascinating. You can see outside your door, noting cables and hardware that make the ride work. The story of the design and construction helps you to appreciate everything that went into making your ride possible.

At the top, North riders are separated from South riders at the midpoint of the arch, but there is plenty of room to move from window to window to get different views. (If both elevators are full, five riders in each of the eight cars on North and South sides, there would be 80 people at the top at the same time. It sounds like a lot, but keeping the sides separate doesn't make it feel crowded at all.) Be sure to get up close to the windows for a direct "straight down" view.

There is limited time to experience the top, less than 10 minutes, as the next load of people will arrive 10 minutes after you did. Get your views and pictures as quickly and efficiently as you can. The attendant announces "loading in 2 minutes" to give you notice for any final pictures. It felt like adequate time to me. Down cars are loaded 3 cars at a time beginning with #8. The ride down is fairly smooth with little movements of the car to adjust to the bend in the arch. I was worried that it might be like a roller coaster drop, as gravity moves it one minute faster than the ride up, but it does not.

We parked at the Stadium East Parking Garage, 200 S. Broadway, 63102. Download the iParkit app, and order you pass before you leave home. The cost of the garage is listed as $30, but when you order your pass through iParkit, it's cheaper. Ours was $12.00 for 5 hours. Try to estimate your arrival time and order your pass accordingly. We didn't figure in the hour time difference from Cincinnati to St. Louis, so we would have arrived an hour too soon. Each half hour outside of your reserved 5 hours is $6.00. We killed time in Madison, IL.