ST. LOUIS – There is a lot of news, food, sports and other trivial pursuits that come from the Gateway to the West. There is quite a bit of trivia that the city can be attributed with.
A person from St. Louis recently posed the question on Reddit, asking, “What’s your favorite bit of St. Louis trivia?” Users had a lot to mention.
St. Louis was almost home to a Disney park
Following the development of the theme park in California, Walt Disney had inspiration to build another in the Gateway City. After all, he did grow up in Missouri.
In the 1960s, plans were drawn up for the indoor, five-story amusement park downtown, nicknamed “Riverfront Square.” But there were two things in the way of the project moving forward: the disagreement on alcohol sales and who was paying for the park.
Contention between Anheuser-Busch, city officials, and Walt Disney himself prevented the park from coming to life. The only blueprints known to exist were sold in Dec. 2015 for over $25,000.
St. Louis kept the series “Seinfeld” alive
Most probably assume that Jerry Seinfeld’s 90s show is one of the most successful older shows, but that wasn’t always the case. In fact, St. Louis can be attributed to helping create that success for “Seinfeld.”
In November 2023, Seinfeld took a visit to Enterprise Center. During his set, he noted that his show had actually “bombed” in its early days. But it was this city that had one of the highest ratings, and that drove NBC to continue the series.
A tree in the Missouri Botanical Garden has been to space
While there have been a few astronauts from Missouri to travel in space, a piece of St. Louis can hold the same title—and that’s the sweetgum tree at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
Several seeds were brought along the 1984 Discovery mission, specifically with astronaut Charlie Walker. He passed the some 200 seeds along to the Forest Service, who then dispersed them throughout museums, parks, and botanical gardens.
Three were given to the St. Louis area. One is planted outside the McDonnell Douglas Headquarters, now Boeing, in St. Louis County. The other two were planted in the Botanical Garden, but as one tree died in 2007, only one remains.
An elephant was the first to cross Eads Bridge
Eads Bridge has stood for over 150 years, allowing commuters to easily travel between Missouri and Illinois. But the first to test the bridge wasn’t a commuter—it was an elephant.
According to St. Louis Bank, over 300,000 people attended the Independence Day Parade to see an elephant test the true stability of the bridge, as there is a saying that “elephants have a sixth sense for unstable ground.”
“Escape from New York” was filmed in St. Louis
This action-packed 1981 movie has a focus on Manhattan in New York, but it all comes from the real filming locations in downtown St. Louis.
According to IMDB, some places used within the movie include The Fox Theatre, Union Station, the Chain of Rocks Bridge, the Civil Courts Building, and more.
The Cardinals were the southernmost and westernmost team in the MLB until 1955
Prior to the organization’s expansion in 1955, the St. Louis Cardinals were the southernmost and westernmost team within Major League Baseball. This aspect combined well with the fact that KMOX was able to reach listeners south, all the way to Jackson, Mississippi.
With this pairing, it was able to create a large base for Cardinals fans.
