The East St. Louis, Illinois Waterfront: Historical Background
Bond JW. 1969. The East St. Louis, Illinois Waterfront: Historical Background. National Park Service
This report has been prepared to set forth some of the historical values that invite a commemorative development of the East St. Louis waterfront. The report shows that from the earliest days of St. Louis the opposite Illinois shore drew together major east-west travel, transportation, and communications routes preliminary to their entry into St. Louis. Foot and horse paths became wagon and stage roads, railroads, and then superhighways converging on the river across from St. Louis. Traveling these routes came empire builders and adventurers, fur trappers and mountain men, traders, soldiers, entrepreneurs, industrialists, laborers, and the emigrating settlers who peopled the West. They crossed the Mississippi from Illinois at a point that truly became the gateway to the "Gateway to the West."