Floating Freedom School

Fair St. Louis is an annual festival held during the United States Independence Day holiday in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, at the Gateway Arch National Park. It is funded by the Veiled Prophet Organization.

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 building. 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 an internationally recognized symbol of St. Louis, as well as a popular tourist destination. The Arch was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen in 1947; construction began on February 12, 1963, and was completed on October 28, 1965, at an overall cost of $13 million (equivalent to $86.5 million in 2018). The monument opened to the public on June 10, 1967. It is located at the 1764 site of the founding of St. Louis on the west bank of the Mississippi River.

Gateway Arch National Park is an American national park located in St. Louis, Missouri, near the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In its initial form as a national memorial, it was established in 1935 to commemorate: the Louisiana Purchase and subsequent westward movement of American explorers and pioneers; the first civil government west of the Mississippi River; and the debate over slavery raised by the Dred Scott case.The national park consists of the Gateway Arch, a steel catenary arch that has become the definitive icon of St. Louis; a park along the Mississippi River on the site of the earliest buildings of the city; the Old Courthouse, a former state and federal courthouse where the Dred Scott case originated; and the 140,000 sq ft (13,000 m2) museum at the Gateway Arch. It is the smallest national park in the United States at 91 acres (37 ha), less than 2% the size of the next-smallest, Hot Springs National Park. The immediate surroundings of the Gateway Arch were initially designated the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (a national memorial) by executive order on December 21, 1935. The Gateway Arch was completed on October 28, 1965. The park is maintained by the National Park Service (NPS). The area surrounding the arch was redesignated as the "Gateway Arch National Park" (a national park) in 2018. This change has been highly controversial due to the nature of the site ("national parks" typically involve significant natural landscapes and significant opportunities for nature recreation, whereas sites that have primarily historical and architectural significance are usually given other NPS designations). Several publications noted that the addition of Gateway Arch as a national park eroded the significance associated with the "national park" designation, and some suggested that the change was made in order to promote tourism rather than to conserve a nature area.

East Riverfront is a St. Louis MetroLink station. The station is located near the Casino Queen and Malcolm W. Martin Memorial Park in East St. Louis, Illinois. East Riverfront was built on a reconstructed viaduct just east of the historic Eads Bridge and is the westernmost station in Illinois before crossing the Mississippi River into Missouri. The station is popular with Illinois commuters and has a park and ride lot with 295 spaces. On January 24, 2023, Metro Transit announced that East Riverfront would close on January 30 for approximately two months to accommodate platform rehabilitation and staircase replacement.

Barnum's St. Louis Hotel was a historic 6-floor hotel built in 1854. The Barnums were a family of hotel keepers who had run the famous Barnum's Hotel in Baltimore. This building was located at the 2nd and Walnut Streets in St. Louis, Missouri, and has been considered to be St. Louis' first high-rise building. The hotel was designed by architect George I. Barnett. The famous former slave Dred Scott worked as a porter here from 1857 until his death. Dred Scott's new owners had freed him two months after the U.S. Supreme Court decision. Scott became a local celebrity, greeting visitors at the hotel until he died of tuberculosis on September 17, 1858.Famous guests included Henry Clay and Illinois Governor Richard Yates.The hotel was demolished in 1890.

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. Its major feature is the Gateway Geyser, a fountain that lifts water up to 630 feet (192 m). The Gateway Geyser is a counterpart to the equally tall Gateway Arch, and is visible from the west side of the river to the right of the prominent Cargill grain elevator. Four smaller fountains around the Geyser represent the four rivers which converge near the two cities: The Mississippi, Missouri, Illinois, and Meramec. The park also includes an elevated viewing point overlooking the river.

KSTL is an urban gospel station located in the St. Louis, Missouri/Illinois area in the United States. Owned and operated by Church of God in Christ, Inc. KSTL's transmitters are located in East St. Louis, just north of the I-55/Illinois Route 3 interchange.

The Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France (French: Cathédrale Saint-Louis-Roi-de-France de Saint-Louis), formerly the Cathedral of Saint Louis, and colloquially the Old Cathedral, was the first cathedral west of the Mississippi River and until 1845 the only parish church in the city of St. Louis, Missouri. It is one of two Catholic basilicas in St. Louis, and it is named for King Louis IX of France, also the namesake for the city of St. Louis.The current structure (built 1831–1834) is located near the historic riverfront of St. Louis. It is surrounded by Gateway Arch National Park. However, the church is not part of the park. Because of the historical significance of the church, it was left intact while all neighboring buildings were demolished to make way for the Gateway Arch and related park. Rev. Nicholas Smith serves as Rector. The basilica serves as a personal parish church rather than a territorial parish church. It ranks 177th of 196 churches in number of Catholics per church in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. However, because of its historical significance (and its location along the Mississippi River near the iconic Arch), the basilica remains a popular church for marriage ceremonies in the archdiocese (ranking second of 196 churches) and a popular tourist destination.

The National Hotel was a historic hotel located at the southwest corner of 3rd and Market Streets in St. Louis, Missouri. The hotel originally opened in 1832 as Scott's Hotel, but this building was destroyed with a new hotel building built in 1847. Other names for this hotel included the New Scott's Hotel, United States Hotel, Germania House, Atlantic Hotel, St. Clair Hotel, and Rice Hotel. The hotel was five stories high and was known as the St. Louis's most luxurious hotel at the time. The hotel was included in the federal Historic American Buildings Survey, but this did not prevent it from being demolished in 1948. Notable guests at this hotel included Abraham Lincoln, Daniel Webster, and Jefferson Davis.The first public transit omnibus line for St. Louis was established in 1843. It ran from the old National Hotel to the North St. Louis ferry landing at Madison Street.

Laclede's Landing is a St. Louis MetroLink station. It is located near Laclede's Landing and Gateway Arch National Park in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. Laclede's Landing is the easternmost station in Missouri, located on the lower deck of the Eads Bridge before crossing the Mississippi River into Illinois. The station sits at the east portal of the historic St. Louis Freight Tunnel. Constructed in 1874 to carry trains between the Eads Bridge and the Mill Creek Valley rail yards, it saw its last train (Amtrak) in 1974. Refurbishment of the tunnels began in 1991 in preparation for the opening of MetroLink, which uses the original route to connect Illinois and Missouri via downtown St. Louis. The station is well known for its historic brickwork that frames the Gateway Arch from the platform level. In 2013, Metro's Arts in Transit program commissioned the work Build by Beliz Brother for installation in the station. The aluminum panels are meant to represent the drawings James Eads used to construct his namesake bridge.

The Eads Bridge is a combined road and railway bridge over the Mississippi River connecting the cities of St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois. It is located on the St. Louis riverfront between Laclede's Landing, to the north, and the grounds of the Gateway Arch, to the south. The bridge is named for its designer and builder, James Buchanan Eads. Work on the bridge began in 1867, and it was completed in 1874. The Eads Bridge was the first bridge across the Mississippi south of the Missouri River. Earlier bridges were located north of the Missouri, where the Mississippi is smaller. None of the earlier bridges survive, which means that the Eads Bridge is also the oldest bridge on the river. In order to accommodate the massive size and strength of the Mississippi River, the Eads Bridge required a number of engineering feats. Perhaps most importantly, due to the use of steel by Andrew Carnegie’s Keystone Bridge Company, it was the first large-scale use of steel as a structural material and initiated the shift from wrought-iron to steel as the default material for large structures. Its foundations were the deepest underwater constructions at the time, at more than 100 feet below water level. They were installed using pneumatic caissons, a pioneering application of caisson technology in the United States and, at the time, by far the largest caissons ever built. Its center arch was the longest rigid span ever built at the time, at 520 feet. The method of constructing the arches, in which they were suspended from temporary wooden towers, is sometimes cited as the first use of the "cantilever principle" for a large bridge. These engineering principles were used for later bridges, including the Brooklyn Bridge, which began construction in 1870. The Eads Bridge became a famous image of the city of St. Louis, from the time of its erection until 1965 when the Gateway Arch was completed. The highway deck was closed to automobiles from 1991 to 2003, but has been restored and now carries both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. It connects Washington Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri with Riverpark Drive and, eventually, East Broadway, both in East St. Louis, Illinois. The former railroad deck now carries the St. Louis MetroLink light rail system, providing service between St Louis and communities on the Illinois side of the river. The bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a National Historic Landmark. As of April 2014, it carries about 8,100 vehicles daily, down 3,000 since the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge opened in February 2014.

The Merchants Exchange Building was a building at Third Street at Chestnut and Pine in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1875 to 1958 that housed the St. Louis Merchants Exchange and hosted the 1876 Democratic National Convention. The building was designed by Francis Lee and Thomas Annan who placed second in a competition for the structure (the winner was George I. Barnett but his work was considered too expensive. The building was the second Merchants Exchange on the location. The first building was built in 1857. During the American Civil War members of the exchange split along North-South lines. The Exchange merged back together after the war. The $2 million venue measured 235 by 187 ft (72 by 57 m) by 187 feet (57 m) and was actually two separate buildings. The second and third floors of the western half of the building had an iron truss system that supported the roof and created the largest open indoor space in the United States at the time of its construction (235 feet long and 98 feet (30 m) wide and 65 feet (20 m) tall) and thus was chosen for the 1876 convention which was the first Democratic or Republican national convention west of the Mississippi River. At the same time of its construction the Merchants Exchange built the Eads Bridge across the Mississippi River.The building was torn down in 1958. Part of the Adam's Mark Hotel was built in its location. In 2008 the Adams Mark announced plans to become a Grand Hyatt. The Merchants Exchange founded in 1836 was the first commodity trading exchange in the United States—predating the Chicago Board of Trade. In its early years it was referred to as the Chamber of Commerce. Articles about the 1876 Convention referred to it as the Chamber of Commerce. After vacating its downtown location, it was evicted in 1995 from its new location by eminent domain when St. Louis expanded the St. Louis Science Center. The Exchange made a last gasp in 2000/2001 to conduct computerized trading of future trading of freight on the Mississippi River. It has quietly ceased operation.