ST. LOUIS, the chief city of Missouri, U.S.A., is situated in a central position in the Mississippi drainage system, on the west bank of the river, about 20 m. below its confluence with the Missouri, 200 m. above the influx of the Ohio, and about 1,270 m. above the Gulf of Mexico. Area, 61.37 sq.m.; pop. (1890) 451, 770; (1900) 575,238; (1910) 687,029; (1920) 772,897; (1930) 821,960 by Federal census. The estimate for 1935 was 846,590. In 1930 the foreign-born were 80,286 and negroes 93,580.
Physical Features.—The city spreads along the river front for about 19 m. and westward about 7 miles. Near the river the land rises rapidly for about 3 m. and then gradually, the uplands in the western part of the city being about 30o ft. above high-water mark. The city is divided into sections by shallow valleys which furnish natural routes for railroads, of which 20 enter from the east and eight from the west. The river front and these transporta tion routes have been the principal determining factors in the situation of industrial areas. The intervening uplands and adjacent regions are occupied by business and residential districts.
City Zones.—From 184o to 188o the river front was the busiest part of the city. Along the central part for 3.7 m. stretches the levee. Wharves, warehouses, wholesale and jobbing houses, lumber yards, and manufacturing plants are crowded together on the rap idly rising ground between the river and Fourth street. When the railroads took the place of the river as the principal means of transportation, the importance of the levee declined; but it is an important wholesale and manufacturing district, for several of the main railroad lines from the north and south enter along the river, and many long established businesses have remained near the river. The streets here are narrow and often poorly paved. Most of the buildings are old and ill adapted to modern com merce. River traffic has undergone somewhat of a revival, due to the establishment by the Government of a line of steel barges between St. Louis and New Orleans; barge rates are somewhat lower than railroad rates. Municipal and Government docks and warehouses have been built for the reviving river transportation.
Beginning at Fourth street and extending west to i4th on high ground between Market and Morgan streets, is the skyscraper business district. The largest retail establishments, several of them department stores, are on Olive street and Washington avenue. In this district are commercial hotels, theatres, clubs, office buildings, wholesale houses and factories. Excepting 12th street, the streets are narrow and traffic badly congested. The downtown district is extending westward. In 1923 a bond issue of $87,352,500 for public improvements was voted, including $6,000,000 for a memorial plaza and building, $5,000,000 for a municipal auditorium, and $4,000,000 for a new court house. The plaza will extend from Market street to Olive street and from 12th to 15th streets making a remarkable civic centre. At the south end are the City Hall, municipal courts and jail; at the west the Public library. Facing 12th between Market and Chest nut streets, is the new court house. Adjacent to the downtown
retail district on every side are wholesale and jobbing houses, warehouses and factories. Here are most of the plants which produce shoes and shoe-making machinery, garments, drugs and medicines. To the west of the downtown district, spreading out like a fan and extending as far as Grand avenue, in the '7os was the finest residential district. This has become a shabby-looking region, densely inhabited by negroes and foreigners, but factories, warehouses, automobile sales rooms and commercial hotels are becoming predominant. In 1923 $2,600,000 were voted for a Union station plaza and $8,65o,000 for street widening. Olive street has been widened from near Grand Avenue to 12th street. Industrial Development.—St. Louis is the sixth American manufacturing city. Its advantageous position near the sources of supply of raw materials, the proximity of a vast thickly popu lated area and of the soft coal fields of Illinois, railroad facilities, and Mississippi electric power make it a natural centre for large industrial plants, and for jobbing and wholesale houses. There were 1,862 factories employing 70,759 people in 1933. Leading industries are assembling and manufacturing automobiles, shoes, drugs, chemicals, tobacco, brick, terra cotta and other clay products, railway and street cars, stoves, ranges and furnaces, steel and lead, hardware, various kinds of machinery, clothing, boxes and woodenware products. St. Louis is one of the largest centres of shoe manufacture in the United States. It is one of the largest of all markets for furs, hides, wool, horses and mules, hardwood, pine, cotton, grain, dry goods, millinery and men's hats. It is a centre for the manufacture of poultry and live stock feed and of meat packing. The total value of factory products in 1933 was New industrial areas on the outskirts have developed rapidly since 1915. The metropolitan area contains over a million people, and the outlying regions are growing more rapidly than the city proper. Metropolitan St. Louis is a rapidly expanding industrial unit, but the outlying communi ties oppose enlarging the city boundary. Most of the water front is industrial. Stretching to the northward near the river is the North Broadway industrial section. Beginning in the levee district and running for about 5 m. to the south is the South Broadway industrial section. The extreme southern part of the city near the river is Carondelet, a third industrial area, with large grain ele vators. South of downtown St. Louis is the Mill Creek section. Here a creek was dammed to furnish power for a mill, and a small lake, Chouteau's pond, was formed. When the first railroad from St. Louis to the westward was projected the valley was selected as a natural road-bed. Chouteau's pond was drained and filled in, and a giant sewer constructed. The Union station occu pies a site once covered by water. The valley is now crossed by a dozen viaducts; below are railroad tracks and along these for several miles are warehouses, factories, lumber yards, elevators and stockyards.