|
Between East and West
The city of St. Louis in Missouri is a bridge between
the east and west of the United States, and offers history, culture and arts,
commerce and one of America’s most advanced auto industries, as well as the
world’s largest beer brewery and authentic Jazz and Blues music
By: Ilan Shchori, St. Louis,
USA
There are several very good reasons to visit St. Louis, located in the state of Missouri, situated at the
junction of the Mississippi
and Missouri
rivers, on the eastern edge of the state, only 500 kilometers to the south of Chicago and to the north
of Memphis. St. Louis was visited by
tens of millions in recent years, especially its Lambert airport, that serves
as a bridge between east and west, but anyone who decided to stay for a few
days was not disappointed.
This is a
cosmopolitan city, with a rich history and cultural heritage and European
atmosphere. Two of the greatest American geniuses of the 20th
century lived here – the poet T. S. Eliot and the musician Chuck Berry. Located
nearby is the city of Hannibal,
the birthplace of Mark Twain.
St. Louis is a large industrial center, the only city in the US where 6
types of basic metals are processes: iron, lead, zinc, copper, aluminum and
magnesium, and serves as a key center for the chemical industries – the second
most important automobile production center after Detroit. But St. Louis is also a city of museums, culture,
numerous tourist attractions, and mainly the city in which various styles of
blues and jazz music developed, immediately after they were created in nearby Louisiana and New Orleans, and before
they continued to develop and spread to Chicago
and New York.
Dozens of jazz and authentic American music clubs are scattered throughout the
city’s center and environs, in addition to numerous bars where every night
blues-rock and Reggae music contribute to the city’s unique character. And
don’t forget that St. Louis
is also the home of the largest beer brewery in the world – Anheuser-Busch.
Despite its
somewhat lackluster image, this is a real tourism city, with dozens of hotels
offering more than 10,000 hotel rooms in the city center alone. Next May, St. Louis is scheduled to
host the annual conference of the American tourism industry – Pow Wow, when
8,000 American tourism industry executives and leaders will attend their
conference, in addition to thousands of additional tourism professionals who
will come to meet them. This event ensures a sharp increase in the number of
internal and external tourists for the next several years. At least that was
the result 15 years ago, when the city first hosted the Pow Wow conference in
1977.
Preparations for
the tourism conference, which will be held on the 17th of May 2003,
are currently in full swing, but St. Louis is also celebrating several
additional events, such as the 75th anniversary of the opening of
highway 66 that links the east and west – one of the most famous highways in
the United states, connecting Chicago to Los Angeles, passing through the
center of St. Louis.
St. Louis was founded in 1764 by a French fur merchant named
Pierre Laclede, but mainly developed during the years under French and Spanish
rule. Numerous immigrants streamed to the city after it was sold to the USA as part of
the Louisiana purchase deal. Back then, St. Louis was considered
a very important gateway for the pioneers on their way to the west. St. Louis is currently a
living memorial and museum for the history and development of American
settlers.
St. Louis’s famous symbol is its huge arch – the national
memorial site for Jefferson and the settlers. Jefferson was the American president who negotiated the Louisiana purchase, thus opening the gates to the
American west. The large arch constructed on the banks of the Mississippi in the center of the city, known
as the Gateway Arch, was designed by the Eero Saarinen, and completed in 1965. The arch is an enormous
symmetrical parabola 195 meters high, made of stainless steel. Construction of
this huge arch is one of the city’s crowning achievements, as part of a project
to renovate and develop the riverside area, which began to deteriorate during
the sixties. Located on each side of the arch are staircases and steep tram
tracks. These trams can carry up to 40 passengers on a 4-minute climb up to the
top of the arch, to an observation deck with thin windows is located. Visitors
can sometimes even feel slight vibrations caused by the wind.
Gateway Arch is St. Louis’s leading
tourist attraction, but the city offers quite a few additional sites of
interests, such as the wharf district next to the riverbank that has recently
developed into a unique nightly entertainment center. This is a 2.5
kilometer-long granite stone paved walkway, which once housed commercial
warehouses and small factories. The wharf district now includes antique shops,
boutiques, offices, restaurants, and music clubs. Permanently moored in the
docks are various boats and ships that serve as museums, theatre halls and
gambling houses.
Located close by
is the Old Courthouse museum, a majestic building built in the neo-classicist
style. For many years this building served as an arena for the sale of slaves,
and in 1847 was the site of the trail of Dred Scott, a black slave who
petitioned the judges to free him of the shackles of slavery. Now, part of the
building houses the Museum
of Westward Expansion,
describing the history of settlers in documents, paintings, photographs and
additional items. Situated next to the Courthouse is Union Station – a huge
Romanesque style building at the center of which is a 70-meter tall clock
tower.
St. Louis’s cultural heart, and especially its theatre and
museum center, is located in a beautiful park area named Forest Park, which is larger than New York’s Central Park, and is cock full of interesting attractions
and sites.
On a hill next to
the park is the St. Louis Museum of Art, an impressive French style building.
Close by is the St. Louis
zoo, where animals are not kept in cages but in natural habitats. The zoo
complex also includes a historical museum exhibiting old photographs of St. Louis, highlighting
Charles Lindbergh’s flight from New
York to Paris
in 1927, in a plane funded by the city’s aviation industry.
A visit to St. Louis is not complete
without a tour of the Anheuser-Busch brewery. Tens of
thousands of German immigrants arrived in St.
Louis in the middle of the 18th century,
settled mainly in the Southside region, specializing, to this very day, in the
preparation of beer. Of all the breweries built, only one is left, but it is
the largest beer brewery in the world. This brewery is responsible for the
production of a major share of the 1.1 billion crates of beer produced by the
company, including Budweiser beer.
Another
colorful district of St. Louis is the De Hill neighborhood, an area where roofs
and stores are painted in red, white and green – the colors of the Italian
flag. This district, is of course, a small and beautiful Italian quarter that
covers 30 blocks. At the center is the Saint Ambrose church, with a statue of a
group of Italian immigrants. The church is surrounded by small, unique bakeries
covering the area with a scent of fresh bread, as well as small grocery stores
and dozens of restaurants.
Another
popular tourist site is the ice-cream shop on highway 66 – Ted Drew’s Frozen
Custard, which is an American legend. The lines are long but service is quick.
St. Louis also has a vibrant Jewish community and
is one of the largest centers of Jewish life in the US. More than 80,000 Jews live in
the city and its suburbs. The community has created an extensive system of
religious and community centers, including a Mikve, Yeshiva, and magnificent
social and sports center. Operating in the city are several Kosher restaurants.
Most Jewish activity is centered around the Jewish Federation House, that
unites all the Jewish communities in the city. A few years ago, a museum was
opened in the Federation House in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, with
a special corner for the relatives of Jewish families from St. Louis. The leaders of the Jewish
community report that more than 2000 people visit the museum every month,
including students from schools throughout the city.
Ilan Shchori is the editor of
"The Israeli Tourist Guide magazine" – a weekly travel magazine – for
the Israeli Trade – The biggest one.
|
