Bridgeton, Missouri
Bridgeton is a second-ring suburb of Greater St. Louis in northwestern St. Louis County, United States. Bridgeton is located at the intersection of the St. Louis outer belt and I-70. Bridgeton serves as the primary transport hub within Greater St. Louis; the population at the 2010 census was 11,550. Portions of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport are within Bridgeton; the populated areas of the city are located between Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and St. Charles; the Missouri River serves as the city's northwestern boundary. Bridgeton is centered at 38°45'26" North, 90°25'4" West; the area has long been influenced by its proximity to important local transportation routes, dating back to Native American trails established by the Osage Nation. Many of those trails became the basis of the first roads in the area, such as Natural Bridge and the historic St. Charles Rock Road, which date back to the days of Spanish and early American settlement; the intersection of I-70 and I-270 in this area add to air and rail access to make the area a good base for transportation-dependent industries.
The recreational American Discovery Trail passes through the area, According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 15.24 square miles, of which 14.60 square miles is land and 0.64 square miles is water. Bridgeton has a uneven history; the first Europeans to interact with Native American peoples and settle there were associated with the area's days as part of the French Illinois Territory. The French explorer, Étienne de Veniard de Bourgmont traveled the area in 1724, on a trail that developed as the main route between St. Louis and St. Charles; the Spanish gained colonial control in 1768 after France was defeated by Great Britain in the Seven Years' War and ceded its territory west of the Mississippi to Spain. In a 1799 census, the population of "Marais des Liards" was given as 42 slaves. Bridgeton was first platted in 1794, named Marais des Liards, it was known as Village à Robert, named after Robert Owen, its founder, who had received a land grant from the Spanish government.
In a Spanish census two years it had a population of 77 males and 47 females. As the area received more and more English-speaking settlers, the village's name became Owen's Station; because of its location, including its proximity to a ferry across the Missouri River, Bridgeton became a stop along the way from St. Louis to St. Charles. Meriwether Lewis passed through on his way to meet members who were gathering as part of the Lewis and Clark Expedition; the city was granted a state charter in 1843. The Jesuits, a Catholic religious order of priests and brothers, came to Bridgeton from St. Stanislaus Seminary and St. Ferdinand Parish of Florissant, Missouri; the order established St. Mary's Church in 1851 as a mission to serve area Catholics; the Archdiocese of St. Louis suppressed the parish in 2001 due to the expansion of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, which caused a decline in residential population. By 1950, Bridgeton's population was 276, lower than it had been in the late 1790s and early 19th century.
The city expanded in size during the decade, growing to 16 square miles. The decade included the founding of the Northwest Chamber of Commerce, the chamber of commerce for the Northwest St. Louis area, which includes Bridgeton; this led into its period of greatest residential growth, the 1960s, during which nearly 8000 single-family homes were built. Denser development was strong during that decade as well, at nearly 2000 units. Unlike with single-family development, the multi-family development continued at about the same average pace during the 1970s and 1980s. While residential construction nearly ended in the 1990s, that decade has seen significant growth in commercial development. Levee-protected floodplains of the river, together with good access to interstate highways and the airport have translated into continued growth for Bridgeton and nearby communities, a diversification of the city's tax base. Proximity to Lambert-Saint Louis International Airport proved to be a mixed blessing. Starting in 1995, an expansion plan for the airport, centered on a new runway plan called W-1W, was fought by the city.
The new runway led to the elimination of 2000 homes in the city, most notably in the Carrollton subdivision, undoubtedly playing a significant role in the city's recent population decline. As of the census of 2010, there were 11,550 people, 4,760 households, 2,957 families residing in the city; the population density was 791.1 inhabitants per square mile. There were 5,088 housing units at an average density of 348.5 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 72.4% White, 18.7% African American, 0.2% Native American, 2.5% Asian, 4.1% from other races, 2.1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.4% of the population. There were 4,760 households of which 28.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.8% were married couples living together, 13.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 5.0% had a male householder with no wife present, 37.9% were non-families. 32.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.6% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older.
The average household size was 2.33 and the average family size was 2.94. The median age in the city was 44.6 years. 19.9%
St. Louis County, Missouri
St. Louis County is located in the far eastern portion of the U. S. state of Missouri. It is bounded by the city of St. Louis and the Mississippi River to the east, the Missouri River to the north, the Meramec River to the south; as of the 2016 Census Bureau population estimate, the population was 998,581, making it the most populous county in Missouri. Its county seat is Clayton. Saint Louis County was settled by French colonists in the late 1700s, before switching to U. S. rule following the Louisiana Purchase. Saint Louis County split from St. Louis City in 1877. In the 1960s, with the growing suburbanization in Greater St. Louis, the County's population overtook the City's population for the first time. St. Louis County borders, but does not include, the city of St. Louis, an independent city; the county is included in MO-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 2019 there was a proposal to merge the county after a Saturday-wide vote. During the 18th century, several European colonial settlements were established in the area that would become St. Louis County.
French colonists moved from east of the Mississippi River after France ceded those territories to Spain after losing the Seven Years' War. The earliest of these, Saint Louis, was founded by Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau on February 14, 1764, who became major fur traders in the city. Founded in about 1767 was Carondelet, at the southern end of what is now the city of St. Louis. Florissant known as St. Ferdinand, was established in 1785 about twelve miles northwest of St. Louis on a tributary of the Missouri River. During the 1790s small settlements known as Creve Coeur and Point Labadie were built north and west of St. Louis. Upon the sale and transfer of French Louisiana to the United States on October 1, 1804, President Thomas Jefferson suggested that the territory retain the districts drawn by Spanish officials during their decades-long rule of the territory after an arrangement with the French. During this time, the first governing body of St. Louis County was established; this government, called the Court of Quarter Sessions, was composed of Charles Gratiot, Auguste Chouteau, Jacques Clamorgan, David DeLaunay, all ethnic French or French Canadians.
On October 1, 1812, the District of St. Louis was renamed St. Louis County during a federal reorganization of the Louisiana Territory's status. After the transfer of Louisiana to the United States, the authority to grant incorporation to municipalities was delegated to the Territory and was a state power; the first to gain municipal status in St. Louis County was St. Louis, which incorporated on November 9, 1809, under the territorial legislature, gained city status on December 9, 1822. Only a handful of other municipal incorporations took place prior to the separation of the county and city: St. Ferdinand was granted incorporation in 1829, while Bridgeton, a settlement along the Missouri River near Florissant, gained incorporation in 1843. Two towns grew and incorporated in the 1850s, with their growth stimulated by the construction of the Pacific Railroad: Pacific and Kirkwood. Pacific, a community along the Meramec River, known before the railroad line connection as Franklin, straddles St. Louis and Franklin counties.
Kirkwood was settled in 1853 after Hiram Leffingwell and Richard Elliott platted and auctioned land along the railroad line. Leffingwell organized the town as a planned suburb, Kirkwood was granted incorporation by the state in 1865. Other areas of the county did not incorporate as towns. Among these were Chesterfield, Gumbo, both settled in the 1820s in west St. Louis County, Gravois and Affton, which were settled in south St. Louis County in the 1850s and 1860s; the first St. Louis Public Schools were established in the major city in the 1830s, it was a decade and more before some of the settlements of St. Louis County began providing public education. In 1854, the School District of Maplewood was established, it included all of today's Maplewood district, part of what became Webster Groves, along the south and southwest, a large part of St. Louis in the east, to the north up to Clayton Road; the first school called the Washington Institute and renamed as Maplewood High School, opened as a one-room stone building at the crossing of Manchester Road over the Missouri Pacific Railroad tracks.
Another antebellum school district was Rock Hill, which provided a one-room school across from the Rock Hill Presbyterian Church until about 1870. The first school in Florissant opened in 1819 under the direction of the Religious of the Sacred Heart, a Roman Catholic religious congregation; the instructor, Rose Philippine Duchesne, was a French immigrant, described as "one of the foremost educators in the state of Missouri." A second school an Indian school known as the St. Regis Academy, was operated for young boys from 1823 to 1829; the complex included a Jesuit seminary known as St. Stanislaus Seminary, which continued to operate until 1971; the earliest public school in Florissant was the St. Ferdinand School, authorized by the General Assembly in 1845 and operated until 1871, when the Florissant School District was formed. From 1813 to 1830, the county initiated several c
Missouri Department of Transportation
The Missouri Department of Transportation is a state government organization in charge of maintaining public roadways of the U. S. state of Missouri. MoDOT has been one of the leaders in the construction of the diverging diamond interchange, having built the first such interchange in the United States and the most of any state. MoDOT director Kevin Keith stepped down from the position for an undisclosed medical reason on March 21, 2013, retired effective July 1, he had served as director since November 2010. Former chief engineer, Dave Nichols, took over as interim director and was appointed director on April 2, 2013. MoDOT operates seven districts throughout the state: Northwest, based in St. Joseph Northeast, based in Hannibal Kansas City, based in Lee's Summit Central, based in Jefferson City St. Louis, based in Chesterfield Southwest, based in Springfield Southeast, based in Sikeston Official website Publications by or about the Missouri Department of Transportation at Internet Archive
Single-point urban interchange
A single-point urban interchange called a single-point interchange or single-point diamond interchange, is a type of highway interchange. The design was created in order to help move large volumes of traffic through limited amounts of space safely and efficiently. A single point urban interchange is similar in form to a diamond interchange, but has the advantage of allowing opposing left turns to proceed by compressing the two intersections of a diamond into one single intersection over or under the free-flowing road; the term "single point" refers to the fact that all through traffic on the arterial street, as well as the traffic turning left onto or off the interchange, can be controlled from a single set of traffic signals. Due to the space efficiency of SPUIs relative to the volume of traffic they can handle, the interchange design is being used extensively in the reconstruction of existing freeways as well as constructing new freeways in dense urban environments. Sometimes a SPUI will allow traffic to proceed straight through from the off-ramp to the on-ramp.
Since most through traffic travels over or under the intersection, the SPUI is still much more efficient than a surface intersection. The most cited advantages of single point urban interchanges are improved operation efficiency and safety as well as reduced right-of-way requirements compared to other interchange forms. Left turning traffic from both directions of the intersecting roadways are able to turn without crossing the path of the opposing left turns; because traffic passing through the interchange can be controlled by a single signal, vehicles can clear the intersection much more than in a diamond interchange. SPUIs allow for wider turns, easing movement for large vehicles such as trucks and RVs. Furthermore, a SPUI takes up less space than a full cloverleaf interchange, allowing construction to take place on a limited amount of property and minimizing state use of eminent domain. Single point urban interchanges are safer than other space-efficient interchange forms such as diamond interchanges.
Research suggests that, although there may not be a significant difference between the two types of interchanges in terms of total collisions, the injury and fatality rates are notably lower for SPUIs than diamond interchanges. The major disadvantage of single point urban interchanges over other types of road junctions is the increased cost due to the need for a longer or wider bridge. A freeway-under SPUI requires a wider bridge over the free-flowing road to make room for the compressed on- and off-ramps. However, this disadvantage poses less of a problem in cases where the arterial, or non-freeway road requires a wide bridge; the intersection of 97 Street, having seven through lanes, with Yellowhead Trail in Edmonton, Canada, though a diamond interchange in concept, required such a wide bridge that traffic-signal phasing allows this intersection to behave as a SPUI. A freeway-over SPUI requires a longer bridge of the free-flowing road to cross the wider area required for the SPUI intersection below.
Additionally, because vehicles must be able to cross the pavement in six different ways, a SPUI has a large area of uncontrolled pavement in the middle of the intersection. This can be unsafe if drivers are unfamiliar with the interchange type. Drivers making a left turn may become confused as oncoming turning traffic passes them on the right-hand side. Due to the large intersection area, the traffic lights need a longer yellow and red phase to clear the intersection, then it may not be long enough for a bicyclist entering on green or yellow to make it across before opposing traffic gets a green. In general, SPUI designs should not be used where bicycle traffic is expected unless substantial changes to the design or special accommodations are provided. Pedestrians are not able to get through the intersection with one green light, it can take up to four cycles to walk through the entire length of a SPUI. SPUIs can be somewhat difficult to clear of snow; the large area in which lanes cross may have to be shut down to allow efficient and thorough cleaning lest a snowplow leave piles of snow, interfering with traffic and visibility in the middle of the uncontrolled pavement.
Additionally, if the wide area of uncontrolled pavement is on a bridge, as in the diagram, the snow cannot be pushed to the sides of the bridge as it may pose a hazard to the road underneath. This problem can be exacerbated by the comparatively large bridge width required by the SPUI. Given that a SPUI allows only left and right turns, drivers may not re-enter the freeway they are departing within a SPUI. Three-phase traffic signals are required. Other interchange types designed for efficiency, such as the six ramp parclo and the diverging diamond, require just two signal phases; the first SPUI opened on February 25, 1974 along US 19, which goes over SR 60 east of Clearwater, Florida. It was designed by Wallace Hawkes, Director of Transportation Engineering at J. E. Greiner Company, called the "granddaddy of the urban interchange"; this design has been altered to include frontage roads in each direction. Several SPUIs, built in the 1970s and are located on German autobahns like the A40, A42, A44, A46, A57, A59 and A113 in Berlin.
There is a SPUI on the Frankenschnellweg, the urban part of the A73, and
Sunset Hills, Missouri
Sunset Hills is a city in south St. Louis County, United States; the population was 8,496 at the 2010 census. Sunset Hills is located at 38°32'8" North, 90°24'14" West. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 9.14 square miles, of which 9.10 square miles is land and 0.04 square miles is water. According to U. S. Geological Survey, the highest point in Sunset Hills is 650 feet above sea level; as of the 2010 United States Census of 2010, there were 8,496 people, 3,424 households, 2,422 families residing in the city. The population density was 933.6 inhabitants per square mile. There were 3,635 housing units at an average density of 399.5 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 94.1% White, 2.3% Asian, 1.5% African American, 0.2% Native American, 0.4% from other races, 1.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.6% of the population. There were 3,424 households of which 26.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.6% were married couples living together, 5.4% had a female householder with no husband present, 2.7% had a male householder with no wife present, 29.3% were non-families.
25.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 18.1% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.39 and the average family size was 2.89. The median age in the city was 50.3 years. 20.7% of residents were under the age of 18. The gender makeup of the city was 47.5% male and 52.5% female. As of the 2000 United States Census, there were 8,267 people, 3,217 households, 2,351 families residing in the city; the population density was 915.3 people per square mile. There were 3,337 housing units at an average density of 369.5 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 96.27% White, 1.44% Asian, 1.08% African American, 0.13% Native American, 0.29% from other races, 0.79% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.88% of the population. There were 3,217 households out of which 26.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 65.7% were married couples living together, 5.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 26.9% were non-families.
24.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.1% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 2.94. In the city, the population was spread out with 21.6% under the age of 18, 5.2% from 18 to 24, 19.8% from 25 to 44, 28.2% from 45 to 64, 25.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 47 years. For every 100 females, there were 88.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.0 males. The median income for a household in the city was $67,576, the median income for a family was $90,417. Males had a median income of $60,869 versus $35,044 for females; the per capita income for the city was $40,151. About 2.0% of families and 3.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.9% of those under age 18 and 5.0% of those age 65 or over. As of the 1990 United States Census, the city had 4,915 residents. Sunset Hills was incorporated in June 1957. In April 1973, it established its own Police Department, in 1981, it purchased a landscaping service in order to establish the city's public works department.
Around noon on December 31, 2010, an EF3 tornado struck Sunset Hills, destroying several businesses and homes, killing one person, injuring others in a three- to four-block area around Lindbergh Boulevard. Panera Bread is headquartered in Sunset Hills; the Kirkwood School District and Lindbergh Schools school districts serve sections of the city. Their respective high schools are Lindbergh High School. Private schools include Thomas Jefferson School, a boarding school for grades 7-12, St. Justin the Martyr School, a Catholic school for kindergarten and grades 1-8. Post-secondary colleges in Sunset Hills include Vatterott College. Sunset Hills is home to an outdoor sculpture garden, it has numerous large sculptures on the park grounds. The Sunset Hills Community Center has everything to meet your health needs. If you have specific fitness goals you are trying to reach, or you are just trying to stay active, we have something here for everyone! Try any of our 20 pieces of cardio equipment consisting of treadmills, ellipticals, E-Spinner!
We have full-body circuit and 2 sections of free weights ranging from light weights and kettle bells to heavy weight dumbbells. The Community Center has a gym and meeting rooms that can be utilized and rented by residents and non residents. At 12450 West Watson Road, is the City's largest park. Hours of park operation are dawn to dusk. Park amenities at Watson Trial Park includes the following: 1 Acre Lake 2 Picnic Sites 3 Picnic Shelters 3 Playgrounds 4 Tennis Courts 9 Hole Disc Golf Course Aquatic Facility with 3 Pools Basketball Court Sand Volley Ball Court The City opened Minnie Ha Ha Park in July 2005, it is located south of Highway 30 at the Meramec River and comprised the Minnie Ha Ha Beach, popular in the 1930s. The picnic shelters are available for reservations. Park amenities include: Walking Trails 3 playground areas 3 Picnic Shelters Scenic overlook of the Meramec River 3 soccer fields The Cities of Sunset Hills and Crestwood came together to create a community dog park located in Sunset Hills near its border with neighboring Crestwood.
The
Cloverleaf interchange
A cloverleaf interchange is a two-level interchange in which left turns are handled by ramp roads. To go left, vehicles first continue as one road passes over or under the other exit right onto a one-way three-fourths loop ramp and merge onto the intersecting road; the objective of a cloverleaf is to allow two highways to cross without the need for any traffic to be stopped by red lights for left and right turns. The limiting factor in the capacity of a cloverleaf interchange is traffic weaving. Cloverleaf interchanges, viewed from overhead or on maps, resemble the leaves of a four-leaf clover or less a 3-leaf clover. In the United States, cloverleaf interchanges existed long before the Interstate system, they were created for busier interchanges that the original diamond interchange system could not handle. Their chief advantage was that they were free-flowing and did not require the use of such devices as traffic signals; this not only made them a viable option for interchanges between freeways, but they could be used for busy arterials where signals could present congestion problems.
They are common in the United States and have been used for over 40 years as the Interstate Highway System expanded rapidly. One problem is that large trucks exceeding the area speed limit roll over. Another problem is the merging of traffic. For these reasons, cloverleaf interchanges have become a common point of traffic congestion at busy junctions. At-grade cloverleaf configurations with full four leaves and full outside slip ramps are rare, though one exists in Toms River, New Jersey. Any other intersection with one, two, or three leaf ramps with outer ramps would not be designated a "cloverleaf" and be referred to as a jughandle or parclo intersection; the first cloverleaf interchange patented in the US was by Arthur Hale, a civil engineer in Maryland, on February 29, 1916. A modified cloverleaf, with the adjacent ramps joined into a single two-way road, was planned in 1927 for the interchange between Lake Shore Drive and Irving Park Road in Chicago, but a diamond interchange was built instead.
The first cloverleaf interchange built in the United States was the Woodbridge Cloverleaf at intersection of the Lincoln Highway and Amboy—now St. Georges—Avenue in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, it opened in 1929, has been replaced with a partial cloverleaf interchange. The original cloverleaf interchange was designed by the Rudolph and Delano building firm from Philadelphia, was modeled after a plan from Buenos Aires, Argentina; the first cloverleaf west of the Mississippi River opened on August 20, 1931, at Watson Road and Lindbergh Boulevard near St. Louis, Missouri, as part of an upgrade of U. S. 66. This interchange, has since been replaced with a diamond interchange; the cloverleaf was patented in Europe in Switzerland on October 15, 1928. The first cloverleaf in Europe opened in October 1935 at Slussen in central Stockholm, followed in 1936 by Schkeuditzer Kreuz near Leipzig, Germany; this is now the interchange between the A 9 and A 14, has a single flyover from the westbound A 14 to the southbound A 9.
Kamener Kreuz was the first in continental Europe to open in 1937, at A 1 and A 2 near Dortmund Germany. The primary drawback of the classic design of the cloverleaf is that vehicles merge onto the highway at the end of a loop before other vehicles leave to go around another loop, creating conflict known as weaving. Weaving limits the number of lanes of turning traffic. Most road authorities have since been implementing new interchange designs with less-curved exit ramps that do not result in weaving; these interchanges include the diamond and single-point urban interchanges when connecting to an arterial road in non free-flowing traffic on the crossroad and the stack or clover and stack hybrids when connecting to another freeway or to a busy arterial in free-flowing traffic where signals are still not desired. Not only are these ideas true for new interchanges, but they hold when existing cloverleaf interchanges are upgraded. In Norfolk, the interchange between US 13 and US 58 was a cloverleaf—it has since been converted to a SPUI.
Many cloverleaf interchanges on California freeways, such as U. S. 101, are being converted to parclos. In Hampton, Virginia, a cloverleaf interchange between Interstate 64 and Mercury Boulevard has been unwound into a partial stack interchange. During 2008 and 2009, four cloverleaf interchanges along I-64/US 40 in St. Louis, Missouri were replaced with SPUIs as part of a major highway-renovation project to upgrade the highway to Interstate standards. A compromise is to add a collector/distributor road next to the freeway. An example of this is the State Highway 23/Interstate 43 interchange in Sheboygan, where the exit/entrance roads on and off Highway 23 are two lanes next to the main I-43 freeway on the north and southbound sides of the road. A few cloverleaf interchanges in California have been rebuilt to eliminate weaving on the freeway while keeping all eight loop ramps, by adding bridges, similar to braided ramps. Several cloverleaf interchanges have been eliminated by adding traffic lights on the non-freeway route.
Sometimes, this is done at the intersection of two freeways when one freeway terminates at an interchange with another. An example of this is in Lakewood, Washington, at the interchange between Interstate 5 an
St. Louis
St. Louis is an independent city and major inland port in the U. S. state of Missouri. It is situated along the western bank of the Mississippi River, which marks Missouri's border with Illinois; the Missouri River merges with the Mississippi River just north of the city. These two rivers combined form the fourth longest river system in the world; the city had an estimated 2017 population of 308,626 and is the cultural and economic center of the St. Louis metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in Missouri, the second-largest in Illinois, the 22nd-largest in the United States. Before European settlement, the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture; the city of St. Louis was founded in 1764 by French fur traders Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau, named after Louis IX of France. In 1764, following France's defeat in the Seven Years' War, the area was ceded to Spain and retroceded back to France in 1800. In 1803, the United States acquired the territory as part of the Louisiana Purchase.
During the 19th century, St. Louis became a major port on the Mississippi River, it separated from St. Louis County in 1877, becoming an independent city and limiting its own political boundaries. In 1904, it hosted the Summer Olympics; the economy of metropolitan St. Louis relies on service, trade, transportation of goods, tourism, its metro area is home to major corporations, including Anheuser-Busch, Express Scripts, Boeing Defense, Energizer, Enterprise, Peabody Energy, Post Holdings, Edward Jones, Go Jet and Sigma-Aldrich. Nine of the ten Fortune 500 companies based in Missouri are located within the St. Louis metropolitan area; this city has become known for its growing medical and research presence due to institutions such as Washington University in St. Louis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital. St. Louis has two professional sports teams: the St. Louis Cardinals of Major League Baseball and the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League. One of the city's iconic sights is the 630-foot tall Gateway Arch in the downtown area.
The area that would become St. Louis was a center of the Native American Mississippian culture, which built numerous temple and residential earthwork mounds on both sides of the Mississippi River, their major regional center was at Cahokia Mounds, active from 900 to 1500. Due to numerous major earthworks within St. Louis boundaries, the city was nicknamed as the "Mound City"; these mounds were demolished during the city's development. Historic Native American tribes in the area included the Siouan-speaking Osage people, whose territory extended west, the Illiniwek. European exploration of the area was first recorded in 1673, when French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette traveled through the Mississippi River valley. Five years La Salle claimed the region for France as part of La Louisiane; the earliest European settlements in the area were built in Illinois Country on the east side of the Mississippi River during the 1690s and early 1700s at Cahokia and Fort de Chartres. Migrants from the French villages on the opposite side of the Mississippi River founded Ste.
Genevieve in the 1730s. In early 1764, after France lost the 7 Years' War, Pierre Laclède and his stepson Auguste Chouteau founded what was to become the city of St. Louis; the early French families built the city's economy on the fur trade with the Osage, as well as with more distant tribes along the Missouri River. The Chouteau brothers gained a monopoly from Spain on the fur trade with Santa Fe. French colonists used African slaves as domestic workers in the city. France, alarmed that Britain would demand French possessions west of the Mississippi and the Missouri River basin after the losing New France to them in 1759–60, transferred these to Spain as part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain; these areas remained in Spanish possession until 1803. In 1780 during the American Revolutionary War, St. Louis was attacked by British forces Native American allies, in the Battle of St. Louis; the founding of St. Louis began in 1763. Pierre Laclede led an expedition to set up a fur-trading post farther up the Mississippi River.
Before Laclede had been a successful merchant. For this reason, he and his trading partner Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent were offered monopolies for six years of the fur trading in that area. Although they were only granted rights to set-up a trading post and other members of his expedition set up a settlement; some historians believe that Laclede's determination to create this settlement was the result of his affair with a married woman Marie-Thérèse Bourgeois Chouteau in New Orleans. Laclede on his initial expedition was accompanied by Auguste Chouteau; some historians still debate. The reason for this lingering question is that all the documentation of the founding was loaned and subsequently destroyed in a fire. For the first few years of St. Louis's existence, the city was not recognized by any of the governments. Although thought to be under the control of the Spanish government, no one asserted any authority over the settlement, thus St. Louis had no local government; this led Laclede to assume a position of civil control, all problems were disposed i
I-55 / I-255 in Mehlville, MO
I-55 / I-70 near Troy, IL
→
→
US 61 / US 67 (Lemay Ferry Road)
Route 21 (Tesson Ferry Road)
Route 30 (Gravois Road)
I-44 / US 50 / Route 366 east – St. Louis, Tulsa
Route 100 / Lewis and Clark Trail (Manchester Road)
Route AB (Ladue Road)
Route 340 (Olive Boulevard)
Route D east (Page Avenue)
Route 364 west – St. Charles
Route 180 (St. Charles Rock Road) / Natural Bridge Road
Route 370 – St. Charles County
I-170 south – Clayton, Lambert–St. Louis International Airport
Route N (New Florissant Road)
Route AC (New Halls Ferry Road)
Route 367 – St. Louis, Alton IL
IL 3 / Great River Road north / Great River Road Spur south – Granite City, Alton
IL 203 south / Old Alton Road – Granite City
I-255 south / IL 255 north – Alton, Memphis
IL 157 – Collinsville, Edwardsville
IL 159 – Collinsville, Edwardsville
