Accessibility

Please note: Visitors now enter the Arch through the west entrance, which faces Fourth Street and the Old Courthouse. The Gateway Arch legs are now exit only.

 

The National Park Service and its partners welcome all visitors and make many efforts to accommodate people with disabilities in the Old Courthouse, the Gateway Arch complex, and on the park grounds. The park has accessible exhibits and programs and offers various assistive devices. The museum exhibits and media in the six galleries at the Gateway Arch will have multiple accessiblity features for physical and programmatic accessibilty including: tactile exhibits, audio description and computer simulations that are visitor directed through a touchpad.

We do not offer access for wheelchairs, scooters, or strollers to the top levels of the Gateway Arch or the Old Courthouse.

Gateway Arch

The top of the Gateway Arch is not wheelchair accessible. To reach it and return, you must manage a minimum of 96 steps, which are separated by 6 flights of stairs. Please be aware you may need to stand for 30-60 minutes or longer, especially during the busy summer season. There is no seating or restrooms at the top of the Arch. In the new museum there will be a representation of the keystone piece of the Gateway Arch which will replicate the experience as much as possible for visitors who cannot make the trip to the top. In consultation with our universal design citizen group, a keystone hub was designed to house a live feed to replicate the view to the west and east from the top of the observation deck of the Gateway Arch.

Visitors on the autism spectrum and their companions will find useful information in this social story about coming to the visitor center and riding to the top of the Arch.

Other than the trams to the top, the Gateway Arch complex and surrounding grounds are fully accessible. The lobby, the Museum, theater, and museum store are all accessible.

Assistive listening devices are available for use in the theater. Please request devices at the Information Desk in the lobby.

Please call ahead to confirm availability for assistive listening devices and request devices at the Information Desk in the lobby.

Sign language interpretation for live programs is available with one week advanced notice. Please call 314-655-1614.

Old Courthouse

There is a wheelchair lift on the Broadway entrance of the building (west side). Until the permannent ramp opens, the portable ramp will remain outside of the Dred Scott exhibit gallery doors to provide access to the Old Courthouse via the lift.

Most of the first floor of the Old Courthouse is accessible to wheelchairs, but the upper floors of the Old Courthouse are reachable only by climbing stairs.

Steps above the first floor:

Between first and second floor	33 steps
Between second and third floor	22 steps
Between third floor and the balcony	22 steps

The floor level changes in the upper floors, and single steps separate these different levels.

A wheelchair lift provides access to the Old Courthouse from Broadway, on the west side of the building. The exhibits and rest rooms on the first floor of the Old Courthouse are fully accessible.

Access Pass

If you are a U.S. citizen and have a permanent disability, you may obtain a free Access Pass at the Gateway Arch Information Desk or at the Old Courthouse Museum Shop. The passport allows free admission to federal areas which charge an entrance fees and provides reductions for other types of user fees.

Service Dogs

Service dogs are welcome at the park.

The Levee and Leonor K. Sullivan Boulevard

There are around 65 steps in the Grand Staircase between the Arch Grounds and Lenore K. Sullivan Boulevard, which borders on the levee. There are two ramps providing access from Lenore K. Sullivan Boulevard to the Gateway Arch grounds. There are no designated accessible parking spaces on the levee.

For further information, please contact us through our information line at 314-655-1700 or e-mail us through our website at www.nps.gov/jeff. Missouri relay at (voice) 1-800-735-2966 provides services for those who are hearing impaired.

 

 

 

 

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  Accessibility Video 1

  Overview video of accessibility within the Gateway Arch Visitor Center.

  Duration:

  1 minute, 49 seconds

 

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  Accessibility Video 2

  Overview video of accessibility at the Old Courthouse.

  Duration:

  41 seconds