Coast Guard Rest Stop

Coast Guard Rest Stop. . , Industry on the River, . The St. Louis riverfront is a working industrial and shipping center for the only area in the country that produces six basic metals: iron, lead, zinc, copper, aluminum and magnesium., . The City of St. Louis Port Authority stretches 19 (unreadable) along the Mississippi River and is a major shipper of grain, coal, petroleum products and chemicals., . Just north of downtown, Grossman Iron and Steel Co. operates a scrap metal processing plant on 22 acres near the Mississippi River bank. The business began there in 1920, as a wooden shack on an empty lot. , . Unique salt storage domes just north of downtown are owned and managed by Gunther Salt. In business since 1902, Gunther Salt brought crushed rock salt up the Mississippi River from Louisiana by barge for the 1904 World's Fair., . Mallinckrodt Chemical Works (formerly Destrehan Street Refinery and Metal Plant) helped process uranium in World War II for the Manhattan Project, a top-secret Army project focused on building the first atomic bomb., . Three miles north of downtown, at the break in the floodwall, stand the ADM Growmark grain elevators. These elevators can hold 2,100,000 bushels of corn, soybeans, sorghum and wheat., McKinley and Merchants Bridge, The McKinley Bridge is a 517-foot-long steel truss bridge across the Mississippi River. It opened in 1910 to (unreadable) rail traffic, and closed to all traffic October 30, 2001. (unreadable) first crossed the Mississippi here. The bridge will reopen (unreadable), with an outer lane for pedestrians and bicyclists., While many think the McKinley Bridge was named in honor of former U.S. President William McKinley, it was actually named after its builder, William B. McKinley, who was the chief executive officer of the Illinois Traction System Interurban electric railway., The city of Venice Illinois ran the McKinley Bridge as a toll bridge, but had difficulty enforcing the toll system. Toll revenue declined and the bridge fell into serious disrepair. Traffic over the bridge came to a halt when Venice, Illinois was unable to pay back property taxes on that part of the bridge in St. Louis and St. Louis City foreclosed on it., Just three miles north of Eads Bridge, Merchants Bridge as a three-span, (unreadable) truss railroad bridge over the Mississippi River. Completed in May, 1890, the bridge connects St. Louis, Missouri with Venice, Illinois., The Terre Haute and Alton rail lines crossed the Mississippi at Merchant's Bridge., (aside:), The Great Rivers Greenway District is the public organization leading the development of a region-wide system of interconnected greenways, parks and trails, known as the River Ring. The River Ring will join two states and cover an area of 1,216 square miles. The Greenway District, formerly known as the Metropolitan Park and Recreation District, was established in November 2000 by the successful passage of the Clean Water, Safe Parks and Community Trails Initiative (Proposition C) in St. Louis City, St. Louis County and St. Charles County, Missouri. For more information about Great Rivers Greenway District, visit www.greatrivers.info