How many steps to the top of Gateway Arch?
The Arch is climbed by nobody: visitors ride a purpose-built tram of eight five-seat capsules that rotate as they travel up the curve, because a conventional lift cannot follow a catenary. The 1,076 steps in each leg are an emergency egress route. The National Park Service uses them for maintenance and occasionally for evacuations when the tram fails. Eero Saarinen's design is 192 m tall and exactly as wide at the base.
The numbers
- Steps
- 1,076
- Reaches
- the observation area at the top of the arch, via the emergency stairs — no public access
- Public access
- Not climbable by the public
- Where
- St Louis, United States
- Height climbed
- 192 m — 630 ft
- Average rise per step
- 178 mm
This count describes a stairwell the public cannot use. Published step figures for famous structures very often refer to service or emergency stairs — worth knowing before planning a visit around one.
Published counts for the same structure routinely disagree by five to ten per cent, and nearly always for one of three reasons: whether intermediate landings count as steps, whether the final platform step counts, and where the climb is deemed to start. The figure here says what it reaches.
How it compares
Only the ones marked open to climb can actually be walked.
| Structure | Steps | Reaches | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 Tower (SkyPoint Climb) | 1,331 | the SkyPoint observation deck at 230 m | Open to climb |
| Tiger Cave Temple (Wat Tham Suea) | 1,237 | the summit shrine and golden Buddha on the limestone peak | Open to climb |
| Sky Tower | 1,103 | the Sky Deck at 220 m | Restricted — events or permit only |
| Gateway Arch | 1,076 | the observation area at the top of the arch, via the emergency stairs — no public access | Not climbable by the public |
| Berliner Fernsehturm | 986 | the sphere at 203 m, via the emergency staircase — no public access | Not climbable by the public |
| Washington Monument | 897 | the observation level at 152 m — stairs closed to the public | Not climbable by the public |
| Space Needle | 848 | the observation deck at 158 m | Restricted — events or permit only |
Common questions
- How many steps to the top of Gateway Arch?
- 1,076, reaching the observation area at the top of the arch, via the emergency stairs — no public access.
- Can the public climb Gateway Arch?
- Not climbable by the public.
- How high is that climb?
- 192 m, about 630 ft, which averages 178 mm per step.
Related pages
- Monuments All 12 here
- How many steps up Statue of Liberty (pedestal)? 215 steps · open to climb
- How many steps up Statue of Liberty (crown)? 377 steps · restricted — events or permit only
- How many steps up Washington Monument? 897 steps · not climbable by the public
- How many steps up Arc de Triomphe? 284 steps · open to climb
- How many steps up Lincoln Memorial? 57 steps · open to climb
- How many steps up Christ the Redeemer? 220 steps · open to climb
- How many steps up The Monument to the Great Fire of London? 311 steps · open to climb
- How many steps up Mont-Saint-Michel Abbey? 350 steps · open to climb
Sources
- Official vendor product documentation — At One Place