Day 8, St Louis, September 24, 2022
St Louis, September 24, 2022 St. Louis is the second-largest city in Missouri . It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers . In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area , which extends into Illinois, had an estimated population of over 2.8 million, making it the largest metropolitan area in Missouri, the second-largest in Illinois, and the 20th-largest in the United States . Before European settlement , the area was a regional center of Native American Mississippian culture . St. Louis was founded on February 14, 1764, by French fur traders Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent , Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau , who named it for Louis IX of France . In 1764, following France's defeat in the Seven Years' War , the area was ceded to Spain . In...