East St. Louis is a city located in St. Clair County, Illinois, USA, directly across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 31,542, less than half its peak in 1950. Like many larger industrial cities, it has been severely affected by loss of jobs in the restructuring of the railroad industry and deindustrialization of the Rust Belt in the second half of the 20th century.
One of th...
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East St. Louis is a city located in St. Clair County, Illinois, USA, directly across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, Missouri. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 31,542, less than half its peak in 1950. Like many larger industrial cities, it has been severely affected by loss of jobs in the restructuring of the railroad industry and deindustrialization of the Rust Belt in the second half of the 20th century.
One of the highlights of the city's waterfront is the Gateway Geyser, the tallest fountain in the United States. Designed to complement the Gateway Arch across the river in St. Louis, it shoots water to a height of 630 feet (190 m), the same height as the arch.
Native Americans long inhabited both sides of the Mississippi River at this point. Mound builders of the Mississippian culture constructed mounds at what became St. Louis and East St. Louis, as well as the large settlement of Cahokia to the north of East St. Louis near present day Collinsville,...
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