East St
EAST ST Louis, a city of St Clair county, Illinois, U.S.A., on the E. bank of the Mississippi, lies opposite St Louis, Missouri. Pop. (1880), 9185; (1890), 15,169; (1900), 29,655, of whom 3920 were foreign born (mostly German and Irish); (1910 census) 58,547. It is one of the great railway centres of the country. Into it enter from the east sixteen lines of railway, which cross to St Louis by the celebrated steel arch bridge and by the Merchants' Bridge. It is also served by three interurban electric railways. The site of East St Louis is in the " American Bottom," little above the high-water mark of the river. This " bottom " stretches a long distance up and down the river, with a breadth of 10 or 1 2 m. It is intersected by many sloughs and crescent-shaped lakes which indicate former courses of the river. The manufacturing interests of East St Louis are important, among the manufactories being packing establishments, iron and steel works, rolh'ng-mills and foundries, flourmills, glass works, paint works and wheel works. By far the. most important industry is slaughtering and meat packing: both in 1900 and in 1905 East St Louis ranked sixth among the cities of the United States in this industry; its product in 1900 was valued at $27,676,818 (out of a total for all industries of $32,460,957), and in 1905 the product of the slaughtering and meat-packing establishments in and near the limits of East St Louis was valued at $39,972,245, in the same year the total for all industries within the corporate limits being only $37,586,198. The city has a large horse and mule market. East St Louis was laid out about 1818, incorporated as a town in 1859, and chartered as a city in 1865.
Consult the Encyclopaedia of the History of St Louis (4 vols., St Louis, 1899); J. T. Scharf, History of St Louis City and County . . . including Biographical Sketches (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1883); E. H. Shepherd, Early History of St Louis and Missouri . . . 1763- 1843 (St Louis, 1870); F. Billon, Annals of St Louis . . . 1804 to 1821 (2 vols., St Louis, 1886-1888); G. Anderson, Story of a Border City during the Civil War (Boston, 1908); The Annual Statement of the Trade and Commerce of St Louis . . . reported to the Merchants' Exchange, by its secretary.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
