St. Louis now has about 700,000 inhabitants and occupies nearly 65 square miles of land, which slopes gradually from the water's edge to the plateau that stretches for miles beyond the western limits of the city. The city is laid out in broad straight streets, crossing each other at right angles wherever possible and numbered north and south from Market Street.
The shopping district lies mainly between Broadway,—the fifth street from the river,—Twelfth Street, Pine Street, and Franklin Avenue. The financial center is on Fourth Street and Broadway, while Washington Avenue, between Fourth and Eighteenth streets, is one of the greatest “wholesale rows” in the West.
Besides its public schools—which include a teachers' college—and private schools, St. Louis has two higher institutions of learning, Washington University and St. Louis University.
Among the most important public buildings in the business section are the municipal court building, the city hall, the courthouse, and the public library.
THE NEW CENTRAL LIBRARY
The St. Louis Union Station, used by all railroads entering the city, is one of the largest and finest stations in the world. Pneumatic tubes connect it with the post office and the customhouse, while underground driveways and passages for handling bulky freight, express, and mail matter radiate from it in all directions.
THE UNION STATION
Almost directly west of the business section, on the outskirts of the city, lies Forest Park, the largest of St. Louis' many recreation grounds. It covers more than thirteen hundred acres of field and forest land, left largely in a natural state. Here is the City Art Museum, which was part of the Art Palace of the world's fair held in St. Louis in 1904 to celebrate the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase.