Tucker Theater

Tucker Theater is the underground auditorium in the Gateway Arch Visitor Center, where a separately ticketed screening of Monument to the Dream follows the Arch from Eero Saarinen’s design to the section that completed it in 1965. Budget about 35 minutes. I’d add it if you want the engineering story behind the monument; skip it if you’re short on time and mainly want the grounds or the museum.

Enter through the Visitor Center’s west entrance from Luther Ely Smith Square, facing Fourth Street and the Old Courthouse. After security, take the elevator, escalator or stairs down to the ground-level museum. Walk through it; Tucker Theater is on your left as you leave the galleries. The north and south Arch legs are exits only, so the west entrance is the way in.

Charles Guggenheim made Monument to the Dream in 1967, two years after the final section of the Arch was placed. The film follows the project from its foundations through the work at the top where the two legs finally met. It was nominated for an Academy Award, and its close view of the builders gives the monument a human scale that’s easy to miss from the lawn.