EAST SAINT LOUIS, Ill., city of Saint Clair County, located on the left bank of the Mississippi, opposite Saint Louis, Mo., with which it is connected by several bridges.
Communications, etc.— East Saint Louis is served by 27 trunk line railroads, all connected by four terminal belt lines. One hundred and twenty-five passenger trains and 150 freight trains are at the daily service of East Saint Louis. The total mileage of all railroads enter ing the city is 64,000. The list of steam rail roads is as follows: Rock Island; Chicago, Peoria and Saint Louis; Burlington; Chicago and Eastern Illinois ; Chicago and Alton; Wa bash; Illinois Central; Big Four; Toledo, Saint Louis and Western; Cotton Belt; Saint Louis, Troy and Eastern; Litchfield and Madison; Pennsylvania; Baltimore and Ohio; Saint Louis and O'Fallon; Southern; Louisville and Nash ville; Mobile and Ohio ; Iron Mountain; Frisco; and Missouri Pacific.
In addition to the steam roads there are also the Illinois Traction Company, known as the McKinley System, the East Saint Louis, Col umbia and Waterloo Railway, and the Alton, Granite and Saint Louis Traction Company, Saint Louis and Belleville Electric Railway, and Southern Traction Company, all electric roads. These roads tap the large and prolific agricultural district around East Saint Louis. There are 75 miles of paved streets and 35 miles of electric street railways.
Public Buildings, Educational Facilities, The noteworthy public buildings are the city hall, high school and public library. The city maintains 38 primary and secondary schools, two business colleges, and are 40 churches of various denominations and four theatres. There are four amusement parks and eight public parks, including Jones Park, with an area of 47 acres.
Commerce and Saint Louis is an important manufacturing centre, manu facturing everything from nails to locomotives. Its industrial interests are aided by the valuable bituminous coal deposits of Illinois, 10,000,000 tons of which are mined annually in the vicin ity of East Saint Louis. The city has manu factories of baking powder, oxide of alumina, roofing paper, malleable iron, glass, railroad frogs and switches, white lead, saint, car trucks, bridges, vehicle springs, forgings, pneumatic tools and silica, and there are several grain elevators, flour mills, foundries, a rolling mill and fertilizer plant. It is the largest alfalfa stock feed producing centre in the United States, and there are also stock yards, a horse and mule market, the largest in the world, and pork and dressed beef packing industries. The
live stock receipts of the National stock yards of East Saint Louis during 1912 filled over 84,000 cars. The live stock sales during 1915 exceeded $150,000,000. In 1915 the report shows that the National stock yards received 991,709 cattle, 2,591,768 hogs, 642,141 sheep, 270,612 horses and mules. Over 5,000 men are em ployed in and around the National stock yards. The freight charges paid on live stock received at the yards exceed $4,000,000 per annum. The yards maintain a railroad of 36 miles, operating 14 first-class locomotives. East Saint Louis has 25,000 industrial workers. The annual pay roll of the city manufacturers is $20,000,01/0. Thirty million tons of freight are handled every year. Its factories consume 3,000,000 tons of coal every year. The mortality rate of East Saint Louis is 11.58, lower than the mortality rate of the United States, which is 15.00. It has six banks with combined resources of $15,000,000.
History, Public Improvements, The city was incorporated as a town in 1861 and received its city charter four years later. It is a progressive municipality, having expended up wards of $65,000,000 in street and other im provements, principally for flood protection and drainage. The flood protection includes a river front levee along the Mississippi, 31 miles in length and seven feet higher than the flood record of 1903. The Cahokia Creek, which formerly passed through East Saint Louis, is being converted into a drainage sewer, most of its headwaters having been diverted to the Mississippi River through a channel four and one-half miles long and 18 miles north of the city. A three-mile limestone wharf is being constructed along the Mississippi River in front of the city. Water, gas and electric power are supplied by private corporations. Hydro-elec tric power from the Keokuk Dam plant is available at very low rates. A fine quality of well water for manufacturing purposes can be obtained anywhere at a depth of 100 feet Government, Population, The gov ernment is vested in a mayor, elected for two years, and a city council, of which the mayor is a member ex-officio. The people elect the city treasurer, city attorney,justices of peace, tax assessors, city clerk and City Court judges. The city has adopted the Commission form of gov ernment which becomes operative April 1919. The growth of the city has been very rapid. East Saint Louis had a population of 5,664 in 1870; 58,547 in 1910; and 92,983 in 1917.