Justice Echoes Through Liberty
On the evening of October 25, 2025, St. Louis gathered for the NPS Arch Anniversary Celebration. I used a Canon EOS R6 Mark II on a tripod with an RF 24–105mm f/2.8 lens at a focal length of 41mm. The shutter speed was 5 seconds with an aperture of f/11.
I got there plenty early and had a statue of a runner in the foreground. About a half hour before the fireworks, a guy came to set up a huge screen to display a video after the fireworks. The screen blocked the arch and the courthouse. I asked him if he could move it somewhere else in the square. He called the people that were paying him, and they said it needed to be in my way.
As soon as I got set up in my new location, a wedding party came to take pictures of the courthouse and the arch. I thought that might add something to the foreground, but they did not stand still long enough to prevent blurriness.
Luckily for me, just as the fireworks started, they got in some limos and left.
The Gateway Arch was built as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, commemorating the era of territorial growth under President Jefferson. Its sweeping curve represents our nation’s ongoing journey—not just physical expansion, but moral and civic development as we strive to fulfill our founding ideals.
The Old Courthouse stands as a symbol of justice. It’s a place where justice was sought, sometimes won, and sometimes denied. The Dred Scott trial was decided in the Old Courthouse.
This is why I titled the image Justice Echoes Through Liberty