Downtown St Louis covers a compact grid east of Tucker Boulevard, between Convention Plaza and the riverfront. It hit its commercial peak between 1880 and 1920, when St Louis was the fourth-largest city in the country, and the architecture reflects that: cast-iron facades, red-brick warehouses, terracotta-clad early skyscrapers. Office workers, sports crowds, and conventiongoers fill the streets during the day, and the area can be quiet at night outside the immediate stadium and Washington Avenue zones.
Almost everything an outside visitor wants to see in central St Louis is here: the Gateway Arch, Busch Stadium, the Old Courthouse, Citygarden, the Wainwright Building, the Eads Bridge, Union Station, and the Washington Avenue entertainment strip. Distances are walkable; the MetroLink connects to Forest Park in about 15 minutes.