History
(Inserting dates and more information in this section would be especially helpful.)
Pierre Laclede founded Saint Louis as a trading post in the mid to late 1700s(exact date?). After the French and Indian War, Saint Louis was controlled by Spain; but Saint Louis, along with the rest of the [Lousiana territory]?, was returned to France during the [Napoleonic Wars]?. Saint Louis and the whole Louisiana Territory were acquired for the United States by Thomas Jefferson. Saint Louis later became the starting point for settlers moving west.
Population
Saint Louis is the largest metropolitan area in the state of Missouri with a total, bistate (several Missouri and Illinois counties) population at 2,603,607 (eighteenth largest metropolitan area in the U.S.) as of 2000. The city of Saint Louis, a separate entity from Saint Louis County, contributes 348,189 people, according to the 2000 U.S. Census; and its population has been declining since the 1950s as people continue to move to the multiplicity of suburbs in Saint Louis County (1,016,315), Saint Charles County (283,883), Franklin County (93,807) and Jefferson County (198,099) in Missouri and Madison (258,941), Saint Clair (256,082), and Monroe (27,619) counties in Illinois, according to the 2000 U.S. Census.
Geography
The city of Saint Louis itself is along the western banks of the Mississippi River and is just south of the Missouri-Mississippi confluence. Near its southern frontier is the River Des Peres; the River Des Peres is now used as a storm drainage channel and is usually reduced to mere puddles, which gives rise to the local name, the River Des Pew. Near the central, western boundary shared with Saint Louis County is the famous Forest Park, home of the Lousiana Purchase Exposition of 1904 or, as it is commonly known, the [Saint Louis World's Fair]?.
Major Attractions
Education
Saint Louis is the home of many important universities: [Saint Louis University] (SLU), [Wahington University] (Wash U.), [Webster University], the [University of Missouri at Saint Louis] (UMSL), and others.
Industry
Saint Louis is well known as being the center of operations for Anheiser-Busch Breweries. Saint Louis is also home to a Boeing plant (formerly McDonnell-Douglas), where many of the United States' and its allies' military aircraft are built.
Medicine
Because of its colleges, hospitals, and companies like [Monsanto] (now part of Solutia), Saint Louis is respected as a center of medicine and biotechnology.
Journalism
The [St. Louis Post-Dispatch] is the only major local newspaper in the Saint Louis area; [Pultizer Publishing]? also owns the Suburban Journals, a collection of local newspapers. It is known and accepted that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has a liberal bias in the coverage of politics and events. The [St. Louis Riverfront Times] exists, but its coverage is more social events and entertainment than news. A few neighborhood and suburban journals cover local news.
Transportation
By far, most Saint Louisans' main method of transportation is the automobile. Use of the automobile is supported by the existence of many limited-access [interstate highway]?s (I-70, I-55, I-270, I-255, etc.) and many other roads. Also, located as an enclave in northern Saint Louis County, near the Missouri River, is the Lambert-Saint Louis International Airport, which is administrated by the city of Saint Louis. Mass transit is provided in two forms, both of which are controlled by one agency: the city bus system and Metrolink, a raised, monorail train system that mainly connects the airport to downtown and, recently, parts of the Metro East (the Saint Louis region in Illinois). Passenger train service is also available through a "temporary" (since 1980) train station set up near downtown by Amtrak?; smaller, yet permanent, train stations exist in the suburb of Kirkwood and nearby [Alton, Illinois]?.
Social Issues
Saint Louis is, for the most part, a segregated city. African-American Saint Louisans tend to live in the poorest, most crime-ridden areas whereas most European-American Saint Louisans have moved into the better-off suburbs. In an attempt to counter this problem, Saint Louis has implemented a school desegregation program: Some inner city African-American students are bussed into Saint Louis County schools; and, in exchange, some County students are bussed into City magnet schools.
Corruption has been a major problem in the government of the City, where a Republican candidate for mayor is unlikely to win an election against a Democratic one. As the population of the City has decreased, the aldermen and alderwomen have fought to keep the number of wards from being decreased from its current twenty.
Another problem that the whole Saint Louis area has been trying to fix is pollution. In Missouri, the state has requires gasoline stations in the Saint Louis area to serve a special, reformulated gasoline; furthermore, the state has implemented an automobile pollution test which all cars (with some exceptions, of course) owned by residents of Saint Louis and the counties of Saint Louis, Saint Charles, Jefferson, and Franklin must pass every other year.
See also: Missouri, Illinois, Chicago, Kansas City.
![[Home]](wikipedia.png)