Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen’s elegant arc of curved steel, soars 63 stories above the Mississippi River, 43,000 tons of concrete and steel shaped into an iconic symbol of America’s opening of the West. Completed in 1965, Saarinen’s vision dominates the landscape along ever moving, muddy water. It towers above the finely trimmed lawns of Luther Ely Smith Square, leading west to the Old Courthouse.