St Louis, Missouri, USA
1906

Saint Louis, sent loo'is or loo'ee, the chief city of Missouri and the fourth in population of the cities of the United States, is situated on the W. bank of the Mississippi River, 20 miles below the mouth of the Missouri, 600 miles (direct) N. by W. of New Orleans, and 875 miles WSW. of New York. Lat. of observatory, 38° 38' 3" N. ; Lon. 90° 12' 17" W. The centre of one of the finest agricultural districts, with admirable facilities for water transportation and vast railroad systems, St. Louis possesses almost unrivalled business advantages. The Mississippi gives it direct communication with many thousands of miles of navigable water, and numerous great lines of railroad radiate from St. Louis as a centre and place it in communication with all sections of the country. Among the railroads of the St. Louis system are the St. Louis and San Francisco, the Missouri Pacific, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas, the Burling ton Route, the Wabash, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. LouiB, the Vandalia Line, the Louisville and Nashville, the Mobile and Ohio, and the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern. All of these lines, together with others hardly less important, now use the Union Station, a colossal structure erected in 1895 at a cost of $5,000,000 and giving accommodation to 32 tracks.

The city, whose major part lies at an elevation of 400-500 feet above the sea, is built on three terraces, the uppermost of which is about 200 ft. above the river surface. It is laid out on the rectangular plan, the streets running N. and S. being numbered serially from the river. The more important thoroughfares are Washington Avenue, devoted largely to wholesale trade interests, and Broadway (or Fifth) and Olive Streets, with the more attractive retail shops. The river-front is largely a levee, along which are lined the numerous steamers that are engaged in the navigation of the Mississippi River ; although still at times bustling with life, it no longer shows that activity which was a feature of the city before the later days of railroad development. The magnificent Eads Bridge, which crosses the river at this point and permits the eastern railroads to enter directly into the city, consists of three steel spans, each of which is over 500 ft. in length, and is justly considered a master piece in bridge-building. It was constructed in 1869-74, and cost, with its vast tunnel, about $10,000,000. The Merchants' Bridge, designed exclusively for railroads, is 3 miles farther up the river, and was completed in 1890 at a cost of about $3,000,000. St. Louis has a most complete electrical and cable street-railway system. Among the notable building* and institutions of the city are the new city-hall (occupying a conspicuous position in Washington Park), the court-house, chamber of commerce, the custom-house and post-office, the Four Courts (an immense structure designed in pattern after the Louvre of Paris), museum of fine arts, and the coliseum, the last- named an enormous edifice designed for concerts, conventions, and expositions, and giving seating accommodation to 15,000 persons. Many of the business houses are massive architectural constructions. The Washington University is an important institution of learning, and has schools of art, science, engineering, law, and medicine. The attendance in 1904 (exclusive of the School of Fine Arts) was about 1900. The St. Louis University is a Roman Catholic institution. Among special schools the St. Louis Medical College occupies a high position. Other educational institutions are the Forest Park University for Women, Christian Brothers' College, Ken rick Theological Seminary, Missouri School for the Blind, Mercantile Library, and the public library, the last-named with (1905) nearly 200,000 volumes. The city has a large number of beautiful churches and hundreds of magnificent residences, St. Louis being essentially a city of homes. It has more than 2000 acres en closed in public parks and pleasure-grounds, some of which are handsomely improved. The most beautiful spot in the city is Tower (Grove Park, containing 276 acres, adjoining which is the Missouri Botanical Garden (or Shaw's Gar den), which was bequeathed to the city by Henry Shaw and stands first in the rank of educational botanical gar dens of the country. Forest Park, the largest pork of the city, contains 1370 acres. The mean annual temperature of St. Louis is 55.7°. The purest of water is secured from the Mississippi through the works at Bissel's Point, and a new system of water-works, located at Chain of Rocks, just below the mouth of the Missouri River, has lately been established. St. Louis ranks fourth among the manufacturing cities of the United States, the value of its manufactured product in 1900 having been about $235,000,000. Chief among the articles manufactured are tobacco (the city being the largest tobacco mart in the world and turning out annually upward of 80,000,000 pounds of manufactured tobacco), malted liquors (upward of 20,000,000 gallons of beer per year), hard ware, railroad-cars, street-cars, stoves, flour, clothing, boots and shoes, wooden-ware, sanitary-engineering supplies, drugs, biscuits, meat products, bricks, etc. The city is also the largest mule market in the world. In its central position at the junction of upward of 20 important lines of railway and commanding the navigation of the Mississippi River, St. Louis is a most important distributary for both manufactured articles and the produce of the soil, its shipments of cotton (upward of 700,000 bales per year), bread- stuffs, live-stock, wool, metal products, coal, hides, etc., being very heavy. It is noted us a drug market.

St. Louis was settled in 1764, when Pierre Laclede Li- guest established a trading-post for furs. The settlement was within the limits of Louisiana, which had just been ceded by France to Spain. The site remained in the hands of the French until some years later. The purchase by President Jefferson of Louisiana (which had been retro- ceded by Spain to France) brought St. Louis in 1303 within the dominions of the United States. It bad then about 1000 inhabitants. In 1822, soon after the admission of Missouri into the Union, St. Louis was chartered as a city. In 1830 the population was 6694 ; in 1840, 16,469 ; in 1850, 77,850; in 1860, 160,773; in 1870, 310,864; in 1880, 350,- 518 ; in 1890, 451,770 ; in 1900, 575,238. The Louisiana Purchase Exposition (World's Fair) was held in the city in 1904.

Lippincott's New Gazetteer: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer Or Geographical Dictionary of the World, Containing the Most Recent and Authentic Information Respecting the Countries, Cities, Towns ... in Every Portion of the Globe Publisher J.B. Lippincott Company, 1906

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