St. Louis

===19th century===
{{Main|History of St. Louis (1804–1865)|History of St. Louis (1866–1904)}}
{{see also|St. Louis in the American Civil War}}
[[File:White men pose, 104 Locust Street, St. Louis, Missouri in 1852 at Lynch's Slave Market - (cropped).jpg|thumb|White men pose, 104 Locust Street, St. Louis, Missouri, in 1852 at Lynch's [[slave market]].]]

The city elected its first municipal legislators (called trustees) in 1808. [[Steamboat]]s first arrived in St. Louis in 1817, improving connections with [[New Orleans]] and eastern markets. Missouri was admitted as a state in 1821. St. Louis was incorporated as a city in 1822, and continued to develop largely due to its busy [[port]] and trade connections.

[[File:City of Saint Louis and Riverfront, 1874.jpg|thumb|left|City of St. Louis and Riverfront, 1874]]
[[File:St. Louis, Mo. tornado May 27, 1896 south broadway.JPG|thumb|South Broadway after a May 27, 1896, tornado]]

Immigrants from Ireland and Germany arrived in St. Louis in significant numbers starting in the 1840s, and the population of St. Louis grew from less than 20,000 inhabitants in 1840, to 77,860 in 1850, to more than 160,000 by 1860. By the mid-1800s, St. Louis had a greater population than New Orleans.

Settled by many Southerners in a [[Free and slave states|slave state]], the city was split in political sympathies and became polarized during the [[American Civil War]]. In 1861, 28 civilians were killed in a [[Camp Jackson Affair|clash with Union troops]]. The war hurt St. Louis economically, due to the [[Union blockade]] of river traffic to the south on the Mississippi River. The [[St. Louis Arsenal]] constructed [[ironclad]]s for the [[Union Navy]].

[[History of slavery in Missouri|Slaves]] worked in many jobs on the waterfront as well as on the riverboats. Given the city's location close to the [[Free and slave states|free state]] of Illinois and others, some slaves escaped to freedom. Others, especially women with children, sued in court in [[freedom suits]], and several prominent local attorneys aided slaves in these suits. About half the slaves achieved freedom in hundreds of suits before the American Civil War.
The printing press of abolitionist [[Elijah Parish Lovejoy]] was destroyed for the third time by townsfolk. He was murdered the next year in nearby [[Alton, Illinois]].

After the war, St. Louis profited via trade with the West, aided by the 1874 completion of the [[Eads Bridge]], named for its design engineer. Industrial developments on both banks of the river were linked by the bridge, the second in the Midwest over the Mississippi River after the Hennepin Avenue Bridge in Minneapolis. The bridge connects St. Louis, Missouri to [[East St. Louis, Illinois]]. The Eads Bridge became a symbolic image of the city of St. Louis, from the time of its erection until 1965 when the [[Gateway Arch]] Bridge was constructed. The bridge crosses the St. Louis riverfront between Laclede's Landing, to the north, and the grounds of the Gateway Arch, to the south. Today the road deck has been restored, allowing vehicular and pedestrian traffic to cross the river. The St. Louis MetroLink light rail system has used the rail deck since 1993. An estimated 8,500 vehicles pass through it daily.

On August 22, 1876, the city of St. Louis voted to [[urban secession|secede]] from [[St. Louis County, Missouri|St. Louis County]] and become an independent city, and, following a recount of the votes in November, officially did so in March 1877.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.stlmag.com/news/politics/st-louis-great-divorce-history-city-county-split-attempt-to-get-back-together/ |title=St. Louis' Great Divorce: A complete history of the city and county separation and attempts to get back together |date=March 8, 2019 |last=Cooperman |first=Jeannette |website=[[St. Louis Magazine]] |access-date=April 8, 2021 |archive-date=April 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420161447/https://www.stlmag.com/news/politics/st-louis-great-divorce-history-city-county-split-attempt-to-get-back-together/ |url-status=live}}</ref> 1877 was year of significant upheaval for the city when [[1877 St. Louis general strike|a general strike occurred there]], in a fight for the eight-hour day & the banning of child labor.<ref>{{cite book |last1=McCabe |first1=James Dabney |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=auNCAAAAIAAJ |title=The History of the Great Riots: The Strikes and Riots on the Various Railroads of the United States and in the Mining Regions Together with a Full History of the Molly Maguires |last2=Winslow |first2=Edward Martin |year=1877 |isbn=9781430443896 |location=[[Philadelphia]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161124212529/https://books.google.com/books?id=auNCAAAAIAAJ |archive-date=November 24, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Industrial production continued to increase during the late 19th century. Major corporations such as the [[Anheuser-Busch]] brewery, [[Ralston Purina]] company and [[Desloge Consolidated Lead Company]] were established at St. Louis which was also home to several [[brass era]] automobile companies, including the [[Success Automobile Manufacturing Company]];<ref>Clymer, Floyd. ''Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877–1925'' (New York: Bonanza Books, 1950), p. 32.</ref> St. Louis is the site of the [[Wainwright Building]], a skyscraper designed in 1892 by architect [[Louis Sullivan]].