100,000 Come to Obama Mega Rally

FoxNews ^ | 10/18/08 | Bonney Kapp

[hole_n_one]

ST. LOUIS - Under the Gateway to the West, the St. Louis arch, Barack Obama addressed an estimated 100,000 people in the “red” Show Me State just 17 days before the general election - his biggest rally to date in the United States.

[RandallFlagg]

Actually, it does look like the shadow of the Arch itself:

The first video I watched in my post at #208 had some guy being interviewed right under the arch -or near the base. He said that neither he or his Son on his shoulders could even SEE Obama. If Obama was onstage near the base of the arch, where the shadow will have started on the ground, how could those two NOT see Obama?
Just an observation. Again, I may be wrong.

[Desdemona]

What’s that flag Hanging from?

Well, the horizontal piece looks like the girder things that we use for major outdoor events that are lifted into place by either fire truck ladders or scissors lifts. Not hard.

I've been reading through this thread and it's obvious that the St.Louis people commenting don't work downtown. Memorial Drive, which is literally ABOVE the highway (the depressed section) was probably closed. The other thing is that the stage looks to be directly under the Arch with the pictures being taken facing west. There is a rise on that field that is graded down to Memorial Drive meant to catch the arch if it happens to fall that direction in an earthquake. What you see in the picture is the top of the rise.

I doubt the photo is faked, but 100K is stretching it. They kept the crowd between the walkways.

[Charles Henrickson]

In this photo it seems even mor apparent that it is the shadow of the Arch. The crowd reaches beond that, back to I-70.

[MilspecRob]

Do the trees run all the way to the capital?

Cough cough, the Capitol of MO is in Jefferson City. That's the old court house. The Druid Scott case was decided here by the SCOTUS in the 1850's.

[Desdemona]

You cannot see the courthouse from the Arch.

Huh? You do know that buildings were removed so that the Arch could frame it?

[Joiseydude]

What makes you think that the rally wasn’t held on the open area on the left side of the roadway as viewed in your pic @ 113?

Because if the stage was located to the west of 70 where the red blob is in the picture below...

...you wouldn't see the side (in green) of the brown building as you see in this photo...

[Desdemona]

There’s a walkway right there. My guess is they kept people off of it.

[Osage Orange]

The trees you are looking at wideminded...are plainly visable trees that frame the pic....

The trees Joiseydude is looking for...are WAY back towards the "Court House"..or whatever it is.

I think they are there....in that picture...way, way back. On the left side...they are shadows in front of the right side of the Court House..On the right side...pretty much very lightly purplish/red in front of the left side of the Court House. They are there....but way, way, way back there.

The thing for me...is by all the pics....it doesn't seem like you could get that many people in that space.

But what do I know....he got 10 million in Germany!!

/s

[Albertafriend]

Now that I look at the bottom picture again I think the entire crowd had to be squished into the area on the east side of the highway. The hotel (brown building) is on the west side of the highway and all the trees are leading up to it not past it. Those are the trees in the park around the Arch. The trees you are asking about show up very small near the tall greyish building. It’s a big crowd no doubt but I don’t think 100,000 could fit in the park around the Arch.

[Joiseydude]

In this photo it seems even mor apparent that it is the shadow of the Arch. The crowd reaches beond that, back to I-70

OK, so if that's the shadow of the arch, where's the break in the crowd that would be caused by 70?

[Charles Henrickson]

You can see from these pictures that the two larger buildings are on the WEST side of I-70 (as does the Old Courthouse), and thus the crowd extends back on the Arch grounds back to I-70.

[Floratina]

Setting politics aside, that has got to give a person a seriously weird feeling to see all those people turn up just for you, compounded by the fact that you’re running for President of the United States. You’d really have to fight to keep your head on straight, I’d think.

[Desdemona]

The trees cannot be seen, because they are physically, I'd say, about 35-40 feet lower in elevation than the Arch itself, let alone the little rise on the grounds. The back edge of that crowd is on this rise that's about 2/3 of the way to Memorial Drive from the Arch. That's where my sister and I sit for the fireworks on the 4th because it gets a breeze.

Those trees are ornamental and they aren't that tall.

[Charles Henrickson]

This sounds like a job for . . . Repub4bush, Tracer of Lost Foliage!

[My Favorite Headache]

Why bother? You can barely see past 20,000.

[Jen]

Wanna bet that the bulk of that crowd is not from ‘red’ Missouri but from ‘blue’ Illinois

That was my thought as well. I'm about 40 miles west of the St Louis Arch and it's quite "red" out here.

[Desdemona]

The Druid Scott case was decided here by the SCOTUS in the 1850's.

The Dred Scott case, too.

Actually, the Old Courthouse Rotunda has fabulous acoustics. It was also the prototype for the US Capitol.

[beckysueb]

St. Louis. 100,000 blacks is a drop in the bucket when half of them have been bussed in from neighboring cities like Kansas City and Chicago. The media is simply counteracting the huge crowds Palin draws. Don’t fall for it.

[Desdemona]

OK, so if that's the shadow of the arch, where's the break in the crowd that would be caused by 70?

My guess is that it's actually closed, but you wouldn't be able to see it anyway, because it's NOT FLAT. There's a rise on the grounds that would block being able to see that far west.

[hole_n_one]

I think the lens used for the pic in question has thrown any real perspective out of whack.

Look at the pic of what I find to be the most accurate portrayal of the crowd size and location found @ reply #100.

It's still my contention that the entire crowd could have been confined to the west side of I-70.