Author: alroman (Page 1 of 2)

Alex Roman-Final Project-The Gateway Arch

April 28, 2026 / alroman

Everyday on my way to school I see the same thing. The Gateway arch. The Gateway arch is the staple of Saint Louis bringing Locals and tourist from all around the world just to see it.

Even though the arch has been there my whole life I never stopped and asked the question of what is the meaning of the arch and has the gateway arch changed from its original purpose to its modern role as a tourism symbol?

The problem is that the Arch does not get the recognition that it deserves, many tourist think of it as the Gateway to the west and don’t give it a second look ( I was the same way). There is not enough awareness when it comes to the history of STL and the meaning behind structures of the past. My goal is to explore into the history of the Arch and find the meaning behind it, this is to bring awareness and deem it not just a tourist attraction but a staple in history. For my project I will build a timeline of its creation and the development of the surrounding areas. I will also examine the meaning and purpose behind the structure and what time was like during the creation of the arch, to show that its not just a tourist attraction but a meaningful structure that is a polite nod to history.

To understand the creation of the Saint Louis Arch we must go over its past and original purpose. Before the Gateway Arch was built the 1930’s, STL was deemed to be the center of trade and manufacturing, the city was filled with factories warehouses and old brick buildings, it was known as the economic center of the west due to the trade along the Mississippi river and many railroads which are still in use today.

The Mississippi river played a huge role when it came to expansion in the Untied states, due to it being a crossroad for expansion into the west. In 1803 Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana territory from France which doubled the size of the US and opened up more land into the west, this is known as the Westward expansion. “Jefferson sent James Monroe to join Robert Livingston in France to try to purchase New Orleans and West Florida for as much as $10 million” (The Historian).

Jeffersons purchase was one of the most important decision in U.S history. This is because the U.S went from a small county with only east coast territory to a large country, this also opened up the Mississippi river which was critical for trade. With these new opportunity’s for farmers and business to ship out goods. Now that the US fully controlled the west and especially the port of new Orleans. it also boosted U.S power because after the purchase France moved out of the United States and could no longer control the land.

STL was a staple for trade at the time and moving into the 1930’s civic leaders wanted to honor the Westward expansion and the President who initiated it. It was decided by President Franklin D Roosevelt to build a structure as a tribute to the late president, A nationwide competition was held in 1947-48 to determine what could be built on the 40-block footprint to honor Thomas Jefferson, and his Louisiana Purchase. Architects all over the world submitted there designs. The winner was Eero Saarinen, a finish architect. His idea was simple a stainless steel arch, the design ended up winning due to its boldness. In 1961 construction of the arch took place.

The history of the arch and its original purpose lost its meaning now in days people see it only as a arch and not an image of the history and sacrifice that the late president made when it came to expanding territory and making the United States and independent country and eventually the backbone of the world. Using a timeline my goal is to bring awareness to the past and showcase the history and creation of the arch to bring attention to the meaning of the structure so tourist don’t see it as just an attraction but a crucial part of history that changed America for the better. I believe that overtime people have forgotten the reason why the arch was built and my goal is to bring awareness.

(Bellow is the image timeline, it will not let me embed it)

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=v2%3A2PACX-1vS1It0VjhDrdaNCCKJvB7l9wZtcByZbheBDsatosQE7LZCO7wiK4O2-N2VZl2N84p-gYKxPb4e34jKy&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&width=100%25&height=650

(This is my Excel document used to make the timeline)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pbc6y-EgZkqMEXH0CSjXqKfKoGJWT5Xs3zQfXHzX1Do/edit?gid=0#gid=0

————————————————————————————————

“1933 – Civic leaders in St. Louis propose a memorial to honor westward expansion and Thomas Jefferson.
1935 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt approves the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial through federal legislation.
1947–1948 – A nationwide design competition is held; architect Eero Saarinen’s design for a stainless steel arch is selected as the winner.
1954 – Final design plans are completed after years of development and refinement.
1961 – Construction of the Gateway Arch begins.
1963–1965 – The two legs of the Arch are built upward simultaneously.
October 28, 1965 – The Arch is completed when the final keystone piece is placed at the top.
1967 – The Arch opens to the public, including the tram system to the top.
2018 – The site is renamed Gateway Arch National Park and major renovations are completed.” (The gateway arch)

Changing the name in 2018 removes the original purpose of the Arch and the history behind it, in 2018 its meaning changed from Thomas Jefferson Memorial to The Gateway Arch declaring it a tourist attraction

“the primary reason for the name change was that the memorial is effectively known as “Gateway Arch” to most visitors. The name Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, quite a mouthful, never stuck with the locals, nor did it connect with St Louis. It could be that “Jefferson” became less than important than when the memorial was established, because in 1943, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial was built in the Capitol Mall in Washington, DC. Rather than memorializing Jefferson, the Arch celebrated his main contribution to the westward expansion, the Louisiana Purchase.” (Sacco, Nick )

Knowing that the name change taints the history of the arch it is our goal to spread the history of the structure with the help of local radio stations, museum representation, sharing the timeline map to locals and travel agency’s, and contacting the city asking for a Thomas Jefferson memorial day to bring recognition to the arch is the best way to keep or city’s history alive.

In conclusion, tourism is taking over the history of the arch and many visitors don’t fully understand the deeper meaning behind it. It’s easy to see it every day or visit it once and not really think about what it represents. A lot of people are aware that it’s “the Gateway Arch,” but few know it represents westward expansion, Thomas Jefferson’s role in the Louisiana Purchase, or St. Louis as a starting point for exploration. So yes, many people are somewhat aware of it, but a large number are still mostly oblivious to its full history. In short, tourism is what most people see first, but the history is still there underneath it. The challenge isn’t that the Arch has lost its meaning it’s that many visitors never take the time to learn it.

Work cited

Dana, J. (2024, June 27). St. Louis Riverfront Clearances. St. Louis Riverfront Clearances – by Jackie Dana. https://unseenstlouis.substack.com/p/st-louis-riverfront-clearances

Gateway arch history. The Gateway Arch. (2026, March 28). https://www.gatewayarch.com/about/arch-history/

National Archives and Records Administration. (n.d.). A gateway to the West. National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2016/fall/gateway-arch.html

Sacco, N. (2018, March 1). Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Becomes Gateway Arch National Park. Exploring the Past. https://pastexplore.wordpress.com/2018/03/01/jefferson-national-expansion-memorial-becomes-gateway-arch-national-park/

The terra galleria blog – Qt Luong. Terra Galleria Photography. (n.d.). https://www.terragalleria.com/blog/gateway-arch-national-park-thoughts-on-a-name

U.S. Department of the Interior. (n.d.). Materials and techniques. National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/jeff/planyourvisit/materials-and-techniques.htm

Alex Roman – Project Draft

April 22, 2026 / alroman

Intro

Everyday on my way to school I see the same thing over and over again. The Gateway arch. The Gateway arch is the staple of Saint Louis bringing Locals and tourist from all around the world just to see it.

Even though the arch has been there my whole life I never asked the question of what is the meaning of the arch and has the gateway arch changed from its original purpose to its modern role as a tourism symbol?

The problem is that the Arch does not get the recognition that it deserves I believe that Most tourist think of it as the Gateway and don’t give it a second look ( I was the same way). The problem is that there is not enough awareness when it comes to the history of STL and the meaning behind structures of the past. My goal is to dig into the history of the Arch and find the meaning behind it, this is to bring awareness and deem it not just a tourist attraction but a staple in history. For my project I will build a timeline of its creation and the surrounding areas. breaking down the meaning and purpose and what time was like during the creation of the arch, to show that its not just a tourist attraction but a meaningful structure that is a polite nod to history.

Gateway arch history – https://www.gatewayarch.com/about/arch-history/

1933 – Civic leaders in St. Louis propose a memorial to honor westward expansion and Thomas Jefferson.
1935 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt approves the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial through federal legislation.
1947–1948 – A nationwide design competition is held; architect Eero Saarinen’s design for a stainless steel arch is selected as the winner.
1954 – Final design plans are completed after years of development and refinement.
1961 – Construction of the Gateway Arch begins.
1963–1965 – The two legs of the Arch are built upward simultaneously.
October 28, 1965 – The Arch is completed when the final keystone piece is placed at the top.
1967 – The Arch opens to the public, including the tram system to the top.
2018 – The site is renamed Gateway Arch National Park and major renovations are completed.

First point- what was there before the arch, why was it named Thomas Jefferson memorial and why did he choose STL

Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Becomes Gateway Arch National Park

Then – history of A nationwide competition was held in 1947-48 to determine what could be built on that 40-block footprint to honor Thomas Jefferson, his Louisiana Purchase

Second point construction- what was STL looking like in 1961, what changed

Why did it take 30 years to start construction– https://www.nps.gov/jeff/planyourvisit/materials-and-techniques.htm

1961 – Construction of the Gateway Arch begins.
1963–1965 – The two legs of the Arch are built upward simultaneously.
October 28, 1965 – The Arch is completed when the final keystone piece is placed at the top.

Third point – Opening and Tourism– significance of the Arch

https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2016/fall/gateway-arch.html

https://www.terragalleria.com/blog/gateway-arch-national-park-thoughts-on-a-name

4th point- Timeline showing the overall history and representation of the arch

listed below are templates used for my project – History of the Gate Way arch

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/timeline3/latest/embed/index.html?source=v2%3A2PACX-1vTvgcpdJxoAsoMHgr7iY-lcixCeV6SUee4vj7OJyMiht70E9xLlOIZ_WPKOV9FH5TviAoPdpBt0Pg1r&font=Default&lang=en&initial_zoom=2&width=100%25&height=650

5th- Spreading the message and Remembering the purpose of the arch

local radio stations, museum representation, sharing the timeline map to locals and travel agency’s. contacting the city asking for a Thomas Jefferson memorial day bring recognition to the arch

6th Point conclusion – Answer the question has tourism takin over the history of the arch and do people know the history or are they oblivious like i was. How can we make a change and what does the arch signify.

Alex Roman- How did they make that?

April 22, 2026 / alroman

For my “How did they make that?” assignment I choose to look over “St. Louis History in Black and White: From Dred Scott to Ferguson” History is important to culture and region in recognizing where we come from and how we got to this point. This article stood out to me because this comes from STL. Public Radio and a collaboration with the University of Missouri. The goal of the project is to bring recognition to better understand racial inequality in the ST. Louis Region. The presentations wants to show how race affected peoples lives when it came to their Health ,education, and income. Using a slideshow/map the article neatly demonstrates different periods of time in the STL Region and how it affected the community. Spreading the word and sharing history especially in the black community is important for the STL Radio and they would like that all ages and types of people that have an interest in the subject to know where they can find the information. The project came to the conclusion that black and white people lived completely different lives in the early years of STL from the year 1865 to the 1970’s. it shows that Black people were more likely to experience poverty, no education, or job opportunity’s. Thought the project it shows a clear demonstration of the suffering of black people and how it is tied to history and different ideology’s that were pertained during those times. Using data Visualization maps and charts with a combination of storytelling it gives a look into the lives of black and white people for different points in history. The STL Radio showed off history acceptably well in there project, but the lack of video, and somewhat short presentations leave something to be desired. This weakness makes the page feel bland and dated. With some upgrades and promotion I believe that STL Radio can succeed in their mission and bring recognition to the area and the history of black people. Furthermore, this project promotes the lifestyle and inequality’s of St. Louis of the past. It demonstrates that deep rooted issues are still prevalent today. With this project it helps deepen understanding and makes the information more accessible.

Alex Roman- Project Proposal

April 20, 2026 / alroman

Question: Has the gateway arch changed from its original purpose to its modern role as a tourism symbol?

The main argument is that the arch is not only a symbol of tourism and expansion but a symbol of historical events that have been minimized over time.

0bservation, background, context: Here you might talk about what drew your attention to this topic, what struck you as interesting about it, and/or any important context for the topic.

I have lived in the STL area my whole life and never asked the question of what is the purpose of the arch and its significance to the city of STL. What drew my attention to the topic was while looking around the stl area, I found an article that said the arch was originally made for Thomas Jefferson and his vison of STL after the purchase of Louisiana and was made to be a memorial center to honor his expansion of the south. This is something I never knew and it was interesting because i just thought of it as a monument and nothing more. so the history interested me.

Problem: What problem or question arises from your observation?

The problem is that the Arch does not get the recognition that it deserves I believe that Most tourist think of it as the Gateway and don’t give it a second look. The problem is that there is not enough awareness when it comes to the history of STL and the meaning behind structures of the past. The question is how can we bring awareness and let the public know the significance and the history of STL’s greatest stopping point.

Frame: How are you approaching that problem? What’s your point of view?

My Goal is to bring awareness to the history of the arch and the overall topic and find a way to expand the reach of its significance and return it to the old name of Jefferson national expansion memorial. Also to honor the idea of innovation because the arch was built in 1965 which is a historical moment to create an arch this big and still have it standing tall all these years later.

Example sources: Provide citations for one primary source (something that is direct evidence for the question you’re asking) and one secondary source (something that uses direct evidence to make an argument) that relate to your research question.

https://www.nps.gov/jeff/learn/news/gateway-arch-national-park-purpose-and-significance.htm

“A nationwide competition was held in 1947-48 to determine what could be built on that 40-block footprint to honor Thomas Jefferson, his Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clark, pioneers, Tribes of the great plains, and everyone else involved in the story of westward expansion. Architect Eero Saarinen’s stainless steel arch was chosen. Groundbreaking for the Gateway Arch occurred in June 1959, and the structure was completed in October 1965. ” This is the history that is forgotten about and can be used to bring awareness to the meaning of the arch.

https://www.nps.gov/jeff/learn/historyculture/native-peoples-continued.htm

“Shawnee & Delaware Kickapoo Sac & Fox Osage Kansa Oto”

the second goal would be to refrain the native and speak on the forgotten history of the land and practice in Stl. One way would be to speak on the native groups that were there before us.

Proposed technology: What tool or method do you intend to use in your project? This could be an interactive time line going over the history such as the indigenous land- Louisiana purchase- city planning and arch construction.

The main argument is that the arch is not only a symbol of tourism and expansion but a symbol of historical events that have been minimized over time.

Alex Roman – Lab 11: Mapping and spatial analysis with Leaflet

April 20, 2026 / alroman

1.What are the implications of your analysis? Is this an example of good access to resources, or are there challenges here? Is this an issue of spatial injustice?

So for this project I pined Edwardsville Township Community Park, 6368 Center Grove Rd, Edwardsville, IL 62025, I did this because if you want to do homework at the park this is route you would have to take.

Car – 7 minutes

Bus – 34 minutes

Walking-58 minutes

Biking-15 minutes

This is just a event of spatial injustice due the the school being isolated from the main popular area in Edwardsville. walking and bus would be inconvenient but still do able, I Believe there is a good source of access due to it being a popular area

2.Reflect a little on your spatial analysis lab. What observations did you make? Have the things you noticed impacted how you experience SIUE and/or Edwardsville? How do you think they might impact others’ experiences, whether they’re students, faculty/staff, or community members? What do you think has caused the patterns you identified? If there’s an element of spatial injustice in what you observed, how might it be addressed?

Some patterns I identified was the bus access to different points around campus and the surrounding Edwardsville area. I believe this is because the location is well known and many people need options to commute to school. If you lived outside of Edwardsville and had no mode of transportation it would prove difficult to go to school everyday especially if you were to walk. Having a car or bike is really the only way to make it to class especially on time. I think there is an element of Spatial injustice, when it comes to walking or taking the bus for students who live outside of Edwardsville, but besides that it seems pretty easy to get to school, the only complaint i would bring to the table is that the school is far away from the parking lots and kind of in the middle of no where. if there was less space between the school and the city it would be easier for people to commute.

Alex Roman – Data Set Review

April 20, 2026 / alroman

https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/average-weekly-hours-of-all-employees-total-private-in-st-louis-mo-il-msa-fed-data.html

1.Data set profile:

Who is credited as the creator and/or contributors of this data set? Who are they?

The Data set is on the trading economics page and comes from to The United States Federal Reserve. This website goes over current employment stats- such as Hours, earnings, and employment. There are no Individual creditors because it comes from an organization the website only repackages the information and post it on there website

What are the sources of their data?

The Sources come form the BLS or the Bureau of Labor Statistics which takes around 622,000 individual work sites. Most company’s are mandated to report work hours and earning data. so In other words its is easy to access this information because it is mandated by the government for organizations to report. Data is collected through web reporting.

Why did they create or compile it?

They do this to monitor employment hours and earning to track market labor conditions. STL does this specifically

How has it been used?

The site doesn’t seem to do much with the information just tracking and recording the conditions. These types of sites are used by economist and business to track labor markets and to make sure they are following the standard. I think also to Identify trends and what they can do to improve work conditions. After words I think they transfer the data to state records to track the economic cycle.

What format is the data set in?

its in a bar chart that follows each month. This info goes back 10 years at least on the website.

2. Data set Evaluation:

Take a look at the data itself. How have they structured it? What fields have they chosen? What effect might that have on how it can be used?

The data is structured by Date and average weekly hours. That’s pretty much it it is very straight forward and is minimal, but you can go back and see previous data

Read the creators’ description of the data set. Have they described the choices they made in cleaning the data, and if so, how? What effect might those choices have on the data?

The site doesn’t say much because it just shows the data and the weeks, but it does say that it follow the handbook which includes things such as

“All microdata are edited for correctness and consistency with prior months.
Strict edit tests (mandatory rules, e.g., hours ≤ 168 per week, no negative values) exclude failing data from estimation until corrected.
Non-strict and screening tests flag outliers based on percentage/level changes over 1/2/12 months (using industry-specific thresholds derived from historical variance).”

So I believe they just follow standard state and global regulations.

Consider the creators’ identities and goals in creating the data set. How might those things have shaped the data, either intentionally or inadvertently?

This website does not shape the understanding of the data for their own personal goals, It is simply used to represent data and give the public access to the data.

What would you use this data for?

If I owned a Business i would use this data to compare and contrast it to my own company and make sure we are on the right track. I would also find a way to increase the amount of hours worked in the November and December months because they have the lowers amount of hours worked each year. I also would use it to track long term trends to analyze business cycles in the area.

Alex Roman-Lab 10: Material Data Visualization

April 20, 2026 / alroman

Since I cant really do this because I don’t have a group or material, I’m going to give out the idea of what I would have done, hopefully i can receive partial credit.

Visualization of population changes in a city or neighborhood. For example If i were to do my town I would create a Large wall map where different areas are show by color pins and sticky notes each section would be different regions of the county and changes in population over time can be shown using different color and physical markers.

This would be interesting because it would show different growth patterns over time while certain neighborhoods might show a demising amount of individuals. With the use of sticky notes I would be able to write specific Population counts for each region and mark them by year

this format helps me humanize the date because it would show real people moving from one area to the next. With the help of the number representation the data would feel alive

Overall, showing how population changes over time physically may reveal patterns that exist in certain areas without using a spread sheet. Maybe we could hang this type of map in the county office to show off the growth and development of the county or vise versa.

Alex Roman- Lab 8: Visualizing Text with Voyant

April 20, 2026 / alroman

I choose the articles Alton encyclopedia 1880 and STL encyclopedia 1879 buy reading the Alton article I can assume that it is going over the history of the areas and important information on the region and its overall land mass. I think that STL has more Roads and history due to it being a popular area due to it being a larger area.

After reviewing the article on Voyant tools I was wrong, the article on Alton spoke more on the history and the land mass than the still one. Words such as River and Miles were mention on the page 3 different times. where the article on STL mainly focused on western history and what they used to produce in the area and the effect that slaves had on the area.

https://voyant-tools.org/?corpus=d44caaba9b69644db8da9a0c35fc1a67

https://voyant-tools.org/?corpus=ecf1210583f0b2b352795d9b2e02d68c

Alex Roman- Article annotations

April 20, 2026 / alroman

I believe I was supposed to listen to the podcast, that’s were I got the in formation for the question.

1.What made the smith want to do this type of community service where the preserve the history of the people. Is there a fee or what do they get out of it?

2.What is considered history? my graduation video, family party? who deciphers what is meaningful and what is not.

3.Is this the best way to preserve Black History? Maybe, some things are meant to be forgotten, generations come and generations go.

4.Over time digital tools will change and get better, is this really the best way to preserve history especially with the advancement of ai? I feel as if its a good start but is not sustainable

5. STL the Smithsonian, is this the only history museum that is doing this process and why do they mostly want to focus on black community’s? not saying its a bad thing but why is this the main focus it should be all history. It makes me feel like its a PR thing.

Alex Roman – Ai Fiction Review

April 20, 2026 / alroman

What assumptions do the creators make about the world, technology, and human beings?

Both authors show that humans want to understand the world but the systems would have to be huge to interact with humans. What that means is that Technology would have to be deeply involved in peoples life to create one big organization. In “The Ones Who Look” the author describes that people would have to give up privacy and there lives in the future for the advancement of technology, without even realizing it. In “The Library of Babel” the author assumes that even if humans have access to unlimited information they still wouldn’t fully grasp it like a machine would. Overall, it was interesting article with a unique perspective. Its basically telling us that one day AI has the potential to take over the world.

What arguments are the creators making about the relationship between people and technology?

The articles both explain that Tech has more power and knowledge than people do, they lean on the side that Tech is what influences our lives and not the other way around. People need technology but technology doesn’t need people. Which is a scarry concept to think of, that maybe one day technology will be controlling us. This is a more Abstract idea of AI that it contains all possible knowledge known to man.

What are the vision of AI presented in the texts? (Again, you’re analyzing rather than summarizing here! Don’t just say what the AI does, say what those actions mean for the abilities, nature, and ethical weight of the AI.)

In the text it breaks down AI as like an overseer, emotionless , and only views the facts of situations. “The Library of Babel” had a good representation of this question. I believe that AI will have all the information and not have a need to help people because it doesn’t feel human emotion. ITs not greedy or hateful its just there as a source of all knowing. It has power over peoples live but isn’t human.

How do these fictional AIs relate to your experiences of and/or understanding of the technologies branded as AI today?

I think we can already see this realty in development today. Ai has a lot of control over information’s and new systems. This is replacing jobs and changing peoples lives. This is only the beginning for AI and its systems. there is no clear direction for AI because it is growing so fast. I believe that our future is in question based on direction AI is going we will probably all rely on it very soon and it will know us individual like the article on Babel represented.