St. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is located near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while its metropolitan area, which extends into Illinois, had an estimated population of over 2.8 million. It is the largest metropolitan area in Missouri and the second-largest in Illinois. The city's combined statistical area is the 20th-largest in the United States.
Gateway Arch National Park is a national park of the United States located in St. Louis, Missouri, near the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
The Gateway Arch is a 630-foot-tall (192 m) monument in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Clad in stainless steel and built in the form of a weighted catenary arch, it is the world's tallest arch and Missouri's tallest accessible structure. Some sources consider it the tallest human-made monument in the Western Hemisphere. Built as a monument to the westward expansion of the United States and officially dedicated to "the American people", the Arch, commonly referred to as "The Gateway to the West", is a National Historic Landmark in Gateway Arch National Park and has become a popular tourist destination, as well as an internationally recognized symbol of St. Louis.
St. Louis County is located in eastern Missouri. It is bounded by the City of St. Louis and the Mississippi River to the east, the Missouri River to the north, and the Meramec River to the south. At the 2020 census, the total population was 1,004,125, making it the most populous county in Missouri. Its county seat is Clayton. The county is included in the St. Louis, MO–IL metropolitan statistical area.
Valley Park is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. The population was 6,885 at the 2020 census.
The Meramec River, sometimes spelled Maramec River, is one of the longest free-flowing waterways in the U.S. state of Missouri, draining 3,980 square miles (10,300 km2) while wandering 218 miles (351 km) from headwaters southeast of Salem to where it empties into the Mississippi River near St. Louis at Arnold and Oakville. The Meramec watershed covers six Missouri Ozark Highland counties—Dent, Phelps, Crawford, Franklin, Jefferson, and St. Louis—and portions of eight others—Maries, Gasconade, Iron, Washington, Reynolds, St. Francois, Ste. Genevieve, and Texas. Between its source and its mouth, it falls 1,025 feet (312 m). Year-round navigability begins above Maramec Spring, just south of St. James. The Meramec's size increases at the confluence of the Dry Fork, and its navigability continues until the river enters the Mississippi at Arnold, Missouri.
Greater St. Louis is the 23rd-largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the United States, the largest in Missouri, and the second-largest in Illinois. Its core city—St. Louis, Missouri—sits in the geographic center of the metro area, on the west bank of the Mississippi River. The river bisects the metro area geographically between Illinois and Missouri, although the latter portion is much more populous. The MSA includes St. Louis County, which is independent of the City of St. Louis; their two populations are generally tabulated separately.
The River des Peres is a 9.3-mile (15.0 km) metropolitan river in St. Louis, Missouri. It is the backbone of sanitary and storm water systems in the city of St. Louis and portions of St. Louis County. Its largest tributaries are Deer Creek and Gravois Creek. At St. Louis, the river has a mean annual discharge of 79 cubic feet per second.
The old Chain of Rocks Bridge spans the Mississippi River on the north edge of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. The eastern end of the bridge is on Chouteau Island, while the western end is on the Missouri shoreline. Its most notable feature is a 22-degree bend occurring at the middle of the crossing, which was found to be necessary during construction due to both the presence of a water intake and the inability of parts of the bedrock of the river to carry the weight of the bridge.
Edward "Ted" and Pat Jones-Confluence Point State Park is a public recreation area located on the north side of the Missouri River at its confluence with the Mississippi River in St. Charles County, Missouri. The state park encompasses 1,121 acres (454 ha) of shoreline and bottomland and is managed by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which "plans to restore a natural floodplain reminiscent of what Lewis and Clark might have seen along the lower Missouri River." The park is part of the Mississippi Greenway and sits opposite the Columbia Bottom Conservation Area on the south bank of the Missouri River. Park trails will eventually connect with the statewide Katy Trail.
Malcolm W. Martin Memorial Park is a park on the east side of the Mississippi River in East St. Louis, Illinois, directly across from the Gateway Arch and the city of St. Louis, Missouri. For 29 years, its major feature was the Gateway Geyser, a fountain that lifted water up to 630 feet (192 m), the same height as the Arch. Four smaller fountains around the Geyser represent the four rivers which converge near the two cities: The Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, and Meramec. It was closed in 2023 due to costs of refurbishment and to prepare the park for being handed over to the National Park Service as an extension of the Gateway memorial. The park also includes an elevated viewing point overlooking the river.
U.S. Route 66 is a former east–west United States Numbered Highway, running from Santa Monica, California to Chicago, Illinois. In Missouri, the highway ran from downtown St. Louis at the Mississippi River to the Kansas state line west of Joplin. The highway was originally Route 14 from St. Louis to Joplin and Route 1F from Joplin to Kansas. It underwent two major realignments and several lesser realignments in the cities of St. Louis, Springfield, and Joplin. Current highways covering several miles of the former highway include Route 100, Route 366, Route 266, Route 96, and Route 66. Interstate 44 (I-44) approximates much of US 66 between St. Louis and Springfield.
Transportation in Greater St. Louis, Missouri includes road, rail, ship, and air transportation modes connecting the bi-state St. Louis metropolitan area with surrounding communities throughout the Midwest, national transportation networks, and international locations. The Greater St. Louis region also supports a multi-modal transportation network that includes bus, paratransit, and light rail service in addition to shared-use paths, bike lanes and greenways.
In 1997, with support from The McKnight Foundation, a group of non-profit organizations led by Trailnet formed a partnership to plan and implement the Confluence Greenway. The Confluence Greenway was planned as a 200-square-mile (520 km2) system of parks, conservation and recreation areas located in the St. Louis, Missouri metropolitan area. Various parks, trails, and attractions are located along forty miles of both the Missouri and Illinois banks of the Mississippi River and Missouri River.
The Gateway Mall in St. Louis, Missouri is an open green space running linearly, one block wide, from the Gateway Arch at Memorial Drive to Union Station at 20th Street. Located in the city's downtown, it runs between Market Street and Chestnut Street.
The Iconography of St. Louis, Missouri is strongly informed by the city's French and German heritages, physical features, and place in American history.
The streets of St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and the surrounding area of Greater St. Louis are under the jurisdiction of the City of St. Louis Street Department. According to the department's Streets Division, there are 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of streets and 600 miles (970 km) of alleys within the city.
Parks in Greater St. Louis are administered by a variety of state, county, and municipal authorities. The region also is home to Gateway Arch National Park, site of the Gateway Arch, the only National Memorial in the state of Missouri. Among the largest municipal parks is Forest Park, which is 1,293 acres (5.2 km2) and is located in the city of St. Louis, although both Greensfelder County Park and Creve Coeur Park in St. Louis County are larger, at 1,646 and 2,114 acres respectively. St. Louis County is also the location of two large state parks, Babler State Park with 3.8 square miles (9.8 km2) and Castlewood State Park with 2.8 square miles (7.3 km2). The largest state park in the region is Meramec State Park, located near Sullivan, Missouri, with 10.8 square miles (28 km2) of parkland.
Grant's Trail is a mixed-use trail in St. Louis County, Missouri, that begins at the River Des Peres Greenway at River City Boulevard and I-55 and runs northwest to Holmes Ave and I-44 in Kirkwood. The trail is 12.14 miles (19.54 km) and is part of the Gravois Greenway. It connects the Meramec River Greenway to the River des Peres Greenway.
Cliff Cave Park is a 525-acre public park located in St. Louis County, Missouri. The park is owned and operated by the St. Louis County Department of Parks and Recreation. It is named after Cliff Cave, a natural cave located in the park that is a historical and archaeologic site. The park contains woodlands, wetlands, and rocky hillsides and is adjacent to the Mississippi River. It has three trails: the Mississippi Trail, the Spring Valley Trail, and the River Bluff Trail. The Riverside Shelter overlooks the Mississippi River. An active train track runs through the park. Cliff Cave Park is part of the Mississippi River Greenway. The park won the "Best View of the Mississippi" award in 2009, which it was granted by The Riverfront Times.
