EAST SAINT LOUIS

city, St. Clair county, southwestern Illinois, U.S. It lies along the Mississippi River opposite St. Louis, Mo. A ferry station was established on the site in 1797, and 20 years later a village was laid out. Originally known as Illinoistown, it was incorporated as a town in 1859, and, after absorbing adjacent East St. Louistown (laid out 1859), it was reincorporated as the city of East St. Louis. With the arrival of the first railroad (1855) and the building of the Eads Bridge (1874) across the Mississippi, the city developed as a transportation centre. Meatpacking became a major industry after the opening of the National Stock Yards (1873) in National City, which, although it has a separate government, is economically a part of East St. Louis. By the mid-20th century the city's industrial activities included oil refining and the manufacture of chemicals, pigments, steel products, glass, and building materials. Changes in the city's racial composition in subsequent decades, however, were accompanied by a loss of industry and by economic impoverishment. Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site (containing prehistoric Indian burial grounds) is northeast. Pop. (1990) 40,944; (1994 est.) 37,438.