City of St. Louis
Quick Facts • With more than 2.8 million people, St. Louis ranks as the 18th-most populous metropolitan area and labor market in the United States. • The area’s central location — both in population and geography — means it is within 500 miles of one-third of the U.S. population. • St. Louis offers more free major visitor attractions than any other place outside of the nation’s capital. Get Down to Business • A leading research center for plant and medical sciences, St. Louis is also a hub for information technology professionals and advanced manufacturing businesses, such as aerospace and automobile production. • In April 2010, Forbes magazine named St. Louis among its “Best Places for Business and Careers,” ranking St. Louis 22nd out of 200 U.S. cities. The rankings were based on the cost of doing business, projected job growth and educational attainment. • The greater St. Louis area is home to 10 Fortune 500 companies – Express Scripts, Emerson Electric, Monsanto, Ameren, Reinsurance Group of America, Charter Communications, Peabody Energy, SmurfitStone Container Corp., Graybar Electric and Centene. • Eight St. Louis-based companies were ranked among Forbes magazine’s “America’s Largest Private Companies” in 2009 – Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Graybar Electric, Edward Jones, McCarthy Building Cos., Apex Oil Co., World Wide Technology Inc., Schnuck Markets Inc. and UniGroup. • Headquartered in St. Louis, Enterprise Rent-A-Car was named No. 15 in the nation for new college graduates on BusinessWeek’s 2009 “Best Places to Launch a Career” list. • St. Louis ranks highly among cities with the highest number of buildings designed to minimize environmental impact with nine LEED-certified (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) buildings, according to a recent U.S. Green Building Council survey.
A History Lesson Founded in 1764 as a French fur-trading outpost by Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau, St. Louis was the trade and cultural center for the Louisiana Territory and everything north and west. Thus, St. Louis is known as the “Gateway to the West,” symbolized by the Gateway Arch that anchors the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. The first European settlers migrated from New Orleans, followed by a flood of trappers and explorers, two of the most notable being Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who led the famous expedition toward the Pacific Ocean from 1803 to 1806 at the request of President Thomas Jefferson. In 1904, St. Louis hosted the first Olympiad in the United States and the World’s Fair, which led to the development of Forest Park, one of the largest metropolitan parks in the nation. At the fair, several foods and beverages, including the hot dog, ice cream cone and iced tea, were introduced to the United States. A St. Louis businessman also funded Charles Lindbergh’s trans-Atlantic flight in “The Spirit of St. Louis.” The city is the hometown of world-renowned figures such as Scott Joplin, T.S. Eliot and Tennessee Williams.