9 things to know about St. Louis

The Red Sox face the Cardinals in the World Series this week. How much do you know about the Gateway City? Whether you’re watching from home or traveling to Missouri for a game, here are some interesting facts about St. Louis.

Free visitor attractions

St. Louis offers more free major visitor attractions than anywhere in the United States outside of the nation’s capital, including the Saint Louis Art Museum, Science Center, and Zoo, History Museum, Museum of Westward Expansion, Anheuser-Busch Brewery, Laumeier Sculpture Park, and Citygarden.

The Gateway Arch

St. Louis’s famous Gateway Arch is a memorial to Thomas Jefferson and the historic role St. Louis played as the Gateway to the West. The stainless steel arch was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen and was completed in 1965. At 630 feet tall, it’s the nation’s tallest monument.

Home of Budweiser

The Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis is birthplace and home of Budweiser since 1876. It’s also the largest Anheuser-Busch brewery in the United States.

The Missouri Botanical Garden

The Missouri Botanical Garden ranks number three on Trip Advisor’s list of the 10 best public gardens in the United States Founded in 1859, it spans nearly 80 acres and includes one of the world’s largest orchid collections in its 14-acre Japanese garden.

Cocktail origins

The martini, the Bloody Mary, the Tom Collins and the Planter’s Punch were all invented at the Planter’s House, a St. Louis hotel.

Home of musical legends

Musical legends Chuck Berry, Tina Turner, Miles Davis, Albert King, David Sanborn, and Michael McDonald (the Doobie Brothers) all hail from St. Louis.

Debut of the ice cream cone

The ice cream cone and iced tea made their debut at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. Hamburgers and hot dogs were also popularized at the event.

Space capsule design

St. Louis’s McDonnell Douglas Corp. (now owned by Boeing) designed and built the space capsule that sent the first men into space in the 1960s.

Birthplace of peanut butter

Though there are several different stories about the invention of peanut butter, it is claimed that the creation of this much-loved snack can be traced to a St. Louis physician. In 1890, he developed the idea of packaging peanut paste as a source of protein for people with bad teeth.