St. Louis Along the Mississippi River

The icon of St. Louis is the Gateway Arch standing 192 meters high on the Missouri edge of the banks of the Mississippi The arch honors the frontiersmen and women who ventured westward to discover the Great Plains, and the Rockies and made their way to California. To get awesome views of the city and the state of Illinois take the tramway to the observation floor.

Beside the Gateway Arch, you’ll find the start of Market Street. This main street is lined with important buildings and halfway along opens out into St. Louis Memorial Plaza.

Keep walking along Market Street and you’ll find the City Hall which has been modeled after the Hotel de Ville in Paris, France.

Farther along you’ll find the Soldiers Memorial Building commemorating fallen American soldiers.

On the right side of Market Street is a large domed building, the Old Courthouse that is part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Park. Today it offers exhibits from the Museum of Westward Expansion. In the courthouse, you’ll also find tickets for the Gateway Arch and Visitor Center.

The Old Cathedral, the Catholic Basilica of St. Louis of France was built on the site of the first church of St. Louis. On the west side of the cathedral, you’ll find the Old Cathedral Museum where you can find out about the history of the city.

Forest Park sits on the site of the 1904 World's Fair. On the north side is the Jefferson Memorial. Here you’ll also find the Missouri History Museum with historical exhibits about the state, St. Louis, and Charles Lindbergh. The City Art Museum has collections from prehistoric to contemporary artworks The St. Louis Zoo and St. Louis Science Center are also here.

Within Forest Park, people can picnic on Picnic Island.

Visitors can walk along the waterways of River des Peres with fountains and water features like the Cascades.

For hiking there is the Kennedy Woods.

See the Cabanne House the oldest structure in the park and on the National Register of Historic Places.

The St. Louis Science Center offers exhibits based on biology, chemistry, and physics. There is the Mission: Mars exhibit showcasing the technologies used in cosmic explorations. An OMNIMAX theater shows science-related films.

The St. Louis Art Museum has artworks by world masters with permanent exhibitions that include the art of Manfredi, van Gogh, and Rembrandt. It also showcases the creativity of eastern schools from the Himalayas to the Orient, the Middle East, and North Africa.

The St. Louis Zoo has some of the top conservation and animal preservation facilities in the U.S. The exhibitions showcase the wildlife of the Caribbean with bamboo sharks and stingrays. Africa shows you pink flamingos, hippos, zebras, leopards, and lions. There are so many things to do and see that it has become one of the city’s top attractions. You can get around the park with the Emerson Zooline Railroad.

The Missouri Botanical Garden also known as the Shaw Garden was named after the botanist and businessman Henry Shaw. There is a lovely rose garden, the unusual Climatron built for tropical plants, a Japanese garden, an aqua tunnel under a water lily pool, and a herbarium.

Six Flags St. Louis sits on the western edge of the city. It is a great amusement park for thrill seekers with rides such as the American Thunder, Bonzai Pipeline, Boomerang, Fireball, and Ninja. Next to it you’ll find a water park with many winding slides and splash pools.

Anheuser-Busch Brewery is in the original place that Adolphus Busch chose to set up shop in the 1800s. Today it is on the National Register of Historic Places. Visitors can tour the old cask rooms, see how the beer is brewed, and finish in the tasting rooms.

The Delmar Loop is the city’s top entertainment area with many eating and drinking establishments. It also offers great nightlife. You’ll find iconic clubs such as Blueberry Hill with 1960s garage and rock and roll, hookah lounges, and The Pageant for great theater shows.

The Weldon Spring Conservation Area along the Missouri River gets you back to nature. The park has lovely limestone cliffs, forests, grassy meadows, and river banks. Marked trails are great for walking. For hearty hikers, there’s the Katy Trail that will take you deep into Missouri, across the riparian plains toward Clinton in the east.

The City Museum is housed in a former shoe factory. It is fun for both adults and children. Exhibits include a giant aquarium, an architectural museum, art activities, a participatory circus, and others.

The Magic House is housed in a lovely Victorian-style mansion with fun-filled exhibits. It is considered one of the top youth museums in the U.S. Here you can enjoy fairy-tale journeys, sandcastle sculpture gardens, and a huge Children’s Village.

Scott Joplin House State Historic Site is the house where Scott Joplin the “Father of Ragtime” lived from 1901 to 1903. It is furnished in the period of the early 1900s and includes memorabilia and a player piano featuring the artist’s music and tours are available.

You might get startled seeing a large decapitated heat while passing through City Garden but it is a part of a typical stroll through this park. This massive sculpture is known as Eros Bendato and was created by artist Igor Mitoraj.

It is the head of Eros, the Greek god of love and desire. The bandages that cover the face symbolize his imprisoned desires. People enjoy taking photos here and climbing inside the huge head.

This small red brick house was once the home of rock and roll legend Chuck Berry. He is known as the Father of Rock and Roll and wrote such classics here as “Roll Over Beethoven”, “Johnny B. Goode”, and “Rock and Roll Music”.

The Lemp Mansion is a historical house, There were three suicides by Lemp family members and the house is considered to be haunted.