It was July 22, 2007 when the unheard of happened.  A rare power outage at the Gateway Arch stranded not only about 100 people at the TOP of the Arch for 2 hours, but 80 people in the two trams were also stuck in those claustrophobic pods!  (Story)  Soon after, they closed the South Tram to completely REPLACE the aging steel cables.

Even though we had been to the top of the Arch several times over the years, that "equipment failure" was in the back of our minds as we treated my Dad and Step-mom to a typical day of site-seeing in St. Louis this weekend.  But as we as we wandered through the Museum of Westward Expansion, the thought of that fateful day last year left my mind.  I took the typical photo shots that everyone does during our tour of the grounds (click here to see the Gallery), but just before we were to embark on the North Tram to the top of the Arch, we stopped by the giftshop...where a certain new gift item reminded me again of how this great monument was still over a half century old!

There is was.  For Sale, $45.
A polished chunk of the old Tram Cable for your mantle.

I'm not sure what marketing genius thought this up (I did think about buying it for about 3 seconds), but I sure hope they gave one of them to all 180 people that were trapped up there that day.  That's the least they could have done, right? 

Needless to say, we all reached 630 Ft. safely and returned to tell about it!  You can see some of the pictures by clicking the Gallery tab above.  Meanwhile, I guess we can all feel confident about riding the Arch Trams for at least another 49 years?