St Louis: Missouri's largest city abounds with world-class attractions, many of them free

Travel America, March-April, 2005 by Randy Mink

FIRST-TIME VISITORS GRAVITATE to the Mississippi riverfront and its silvery focal point--the mighty Gateway Arch, the very symbol of St. Louis and its heritage as a portal to the untamed American West. Within walking distance of the stainless steel landmark lie other points of interest in the downtown area.

A big hit with sports fans is the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum, which shares a building with the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame. For one admission price, you can see this unusual combo and even add a tour of the Cardinals' Busch Stadium, across the street.

A tour of the circular stadium, built in 1966, takes you into the press box, a dugout, and private skybox suites. You'll notice the new Busch Stadium (ready in 2006) under construction next door.

At the ballpark and Cardinals Hall of Fame you'll hear about hometown heroes like Stan Musial, Ozzie Smith, Bob Gibson, and Mark McGwire. A basement theater in the two-sport museum has movies on bowling and great moments in Redbird history. Everyone gets to play four free frames at the bowling lanes outside the theater.

It would be easy to spend your whole day on the riverfront, just east of the stadium. Start with a tram ride inside the north or south leg of the Gateway Arch, America's tallest national monument at 630 feet. Once at the top, you can look out tiny windows on either side, with Illinois to the east and Missouri to the west. Visibility on a clear day is 30 miles. Before or after the tram trip, delve into frontier life at the free Museum of Westward Expansion or catch the giant-screen movie Lewis and Clark: Great Journey West. The film Monument to the Dream documents the construction of the Arch, an engineering marvel.

Other riverfront diversions include sightseeing cruises, new helicopter tours, and gaming action at the permanently moored President Casino at Laclede's Landing, the oldest part of St. Louis. Restaurants, music clubs, and shops line the cobblestone streets of this rejuvenated warehouse district.

The most fun place for a shopping spree is fortress-like Union Station, a former train depot on the western edge of downtown. The 1894 limestone landmark, once the nation's largest and busiest passenger rail station, houses a festival marketplace with specialty shops, colorful carts, and familiar chain stores like Disney and Discovery Channel, plus all kinds of eateries and a Hyatt Regency hotel. There's even a lake. Memorabilia in display cases throughout the station recalls its glorious past.

If you've already seen downtown St. Louis on previous trips or hunger for some green space, concentrate on Forest Park, a spacious oasis with enough diversions to keep you busy for days. It's just a few stops away on the easy-to-use light rail system. Larger than New York's Central Park, the leafy retreat offers a chance to unwind, whether you choose to sample its outstanding attractions or opt for outdoor recreation.

The free St. Louis Zoo, one of the nation's best zoos, recently revamped its famous Bird Cage, one of the world's largest walk-through aviaries. It originally was the Smithsonian Institution's exhibit at the 1904 World's Fair, which sprawled across Forest Park. Other zoo features are The River's Edge animal habitat with underwater hippo viewing and a new outdoor home (opening May 13) for chimpanzees and orangutans.

Also free is the neighboring St. Louis Art Museum, built as the Fine Arts Palace for the 1904 fair, officially called the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Treasures range from Turkish rugs and African headdresses to works by Van Gogh and Picasso. A new gallery showcases the arms and armor collection.

The Missouri History Museum, another of the park's free attractions, last year opened a permanent World's Fair exhibit to coincide with the expo's centennial. Other exhibits spotlight pioneer heritage, the civil rights movement, sports teams, and key industries like brewing and shoe manufacturing. Through April 24, the museum hosts the traveling exhibition "Baseball as America," a collection of artifacts from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.

Personal possessions of Charles Lindbergh, a re-creation of his Spirit of St. Louis cockpit, and film footage recall the pioneer aviator's historic 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic. A replica of his plane hovers overhead in the museum's MacDermott Grand Hall.

At the hands-on St. Louis Science Center, a family favorite, you can see a robotic T-rex, feel an earthquake, play computer games, and check your weight on every planet. From a bridge over the highway, junior "policemen" check for speeders with a radar gun. Other crowd-pleasers include planetarium shows and an Omnimax movie theater. General admission is free; there's a charge for the films.

From the newly restored Forest Park Boathouse you can take out a rowboat or paddleboat and explore lakes that were spruced up for last year's World's Fair celebration. (A massive $90-million project restored the whole park to its former glory.) Boaters can paddle to a picnic island, cruise around a wildlife island, and enjoy eight new fountains that dot the waterway.