Created in 1976, David von Schlegell’s stainless steel sculpture The Gate uses horizontal lines as a metaphor linking the land and Lake Superior at their intersection with the City of Duluth, recognizing Duluth’s importance as both a gateway to Minnesota’s north shore and to the world through the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Seaway, which extends 3700 kilometers (2,300 miles) east to the Atlantic Ocean. Von Schlegell, born in St. Louis, Missouri, was the son of American Impressionist painter William von Schlegell and began his own career as a painter before turning to sculpture in the early 1960's. Over the course of his career, he received many public commissions and several grants and awards, including the Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture in 1978, and developed a vocabulary of streamlined abstract forms and planes reflecting his knowledge of Constructivism and his lifelong interest in yacht and airplane design. He served as director of graduate studies in sculpture at Yale University from 1971 to 1990, during which this sculpture was created. Fabricated by Lippincott Inc. of North Haven, Connecticut, the work measures 12.2 meters long (40 feet), rises 10.6 meters (34 feet, 9 inches) above the ground, and has an estimated mass of 4500 kilograms (10,000 pounds). It was commissioned in 1969 by a Federal and State artist selections panel and funded through a partnership involving the National Endowment for the Arts, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Minnesota State Highway Department, the Duluth Bicentennial Commission, and Mrs. Eva Glimcher, a local private donor.