Metro East and Related Topics

Southern Illinois

Southern third of Illinois, principally along and south of Interstate 64.

Artist's recreation of central Cahokia near East St Louis in St Clair County

Artist's representation of the Kincaid Site on the Ohio River in Massac County, as it may have looked during its peak

The French Fort de Chartres' powder magazine, restored, is thought to be the oldest standing building in Illinois. Made of limestone in 1756.

The Bank of Illinois in Shawneetown, built in 1839–1841, shown in 1937

The majority of Illinois voters in 1824 rejected a proposal for a new constitutional convention that could have made slavery legal outright. A map of Illinois free And slave counties in 1824 showing shaded counties that were favorable to legalizing slavery in Illinois

Belleville around the start of the 20th century.

Southern Illinois is also known as "Little Egypt".

Cairo panoramic map, 1885. The city sits between two rivers, reminding early settlers of the Egyptian Delta.

Southern Illinois, showing the Metro East region in red, East Central Southern Illinois in teal, West Central Southern Illinois in dark green, Southwest Illinois in light green, and Southeastern Illinois in purple.

Granite City downtown and city hall, population 27,549.

Edwardsville, Illinois, Population 26,808.

Grand Rapids Hotel Mount Carmel, Illinois on opening day in 1922

Bald Knob Cross rises 111 feet above the Shawnee National Forest west of Alto Pass, Illinois.

Harrisburg skyline. Harrisburg prospered with one of the largest Southern Illinois downtown districts during the 1920s and had a population of nearly 16,000 people. Today it has a population of about 9,000.

Garden of the Gods, south of Harrisburg, rests in the Shawnee Hills and has an elevation of nearly 800 feet 244(m).

Aerial of Jameson Island in the Big Muddy, view looking south.

Contemporary woodcut of the 1812 New Madrid earthquake.

Quakes in the New Madrid and Wabash Valley seismic zones over several decades.

The Clark Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge across the Mississippi River between West Alton, Missouri and Alton, Illinois.

The Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge connecting Missouri's Route 34 and Route 74 with Illinois Route 146 across the Mississippi River between Cape Girardeau, Missouri and East Cape Girardeau, Illinois.

The New Harmony Toll Bridge is a through truss bridge that connected Illinois Route 14 and Indiana State Road 66 across the Wabash River between New Harmony, Indiana and rural White County, Illinois until its closure in 2012.

1940 Oil field, Marion County, near Salem, Illinois

The two higher density areas of population are Metro East (pop.

St. Clair County, Illinois

Oldest county in Illinois; its western border is formed by the Mississippi River, bordering Missouri.

St. Clair County as it was re-established in 1809. This diagonal border line had been drawn by the Indiana Territorial government in 1803.

It is a part of the Metro East in southern Illinois.

Madison County, Illinois

County located in the U.S. state of Illinois.

Madison County between its creation in 1812 and 1815, extending north to Lake Superior and the border with Rupert's Land

Between 1825 and 1829, Madison included a northern salient that was split off to form part of Macoupin County.

In 1829, Madison returned to its 1821 borders.

In 1843, a small amount of land was transferred to Bond County, reducing Madison to its current size.

It is a part of the Metro East in southern Illinois.

Greater St. Louis

Bi-state metropolitan area that completely surrounds and includes the independent city of St. Louis, the principal city.

Brookings Hall, the administrative building for Washington University in St. Louis

The St. Louis, MO-IL metropolitan statistical area (MSA)—and the focus of this page—includes the City of St. Louis; the Illinois counties of Bond, Calhoun, Clinton, Jersey, Macoupin, Madison, Monroe, and St. Clair (known collectively as the Metro East); and the Missouri counties of Crawford (only the City of Sullivan), Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, St. Charles, St. Louis (separate from and not inclusive of the city of St. Louis), and Warren.

East St. Louis, Illinois

City in St. Clair County, Illinois.

Cargill grain elevator in East St. Louis

Abandoned for decades, the Spivey Building in the downtown neighborhood is the tallest building in the city.

The Eads Bridge from the St. Louis side of the river, looking into East St. Louis

East St. Louis is in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois.

A rural stretch of I-5 in California; two lanes in each direction are separated by a large grassy median and cross-traffic is limited to overpasses and underpasses

Interstate 70 in Illinois

Part of the Interstate Highway System that travels from Cove Fort, Utah, to Baltimore, Maryland.

I-70, which travels in a generally east-northeast direction across the state parallel to and sometimes concurrent with U.S. Route 40 (US 40), connects St. Louis and the Metro East region of Illinois with the Indiana cities of Terre Haute and Indianapolis, as well as many small towns along the northern edge of Southern Illinois and the southern tier of the Central Illinois region.

Illinois

State in the Midwestern United States.

Mississippian copper plate found at the Saddle Site in Union County, Illinois

Illinois in 1718, approximate modern state area highlighted, from Carte de la Louisiane et du cours du Mississipi by Guillaume de L'Isle

The bell donated by King Louis XV in 1741 to the mission at Kaskaskia. It was later called the "Liberty Bell of the West", after it was rung to celebrate U.S. victory in the Revolution

In 1818, Illinois became the 21st U.S. state. The southern portion of Illinois Territory was admitted as the state of Illinois, and the rest was joined to Michigan Territory.

[[Old State Capitol State Historic Site|
Old State Capitol]]: Abraham Lincoln and other area legislators were instrumental in moving the state capitol to centrally located Springfield in 1839.

Embarkation of Union troops from Cairo on January 10, 1862

Charles Mound, the highest natural point in Illinois at 1,235 feet above sea level, is located in the Driftless Area in the northwestern part of the state.

At 279 feet above sea level, the lowest elevation point in the state is located near Cairo and the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

Density map displaying the population of Illinois

The Baháʼí House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago at the heart of Chicago's financial center

Byron Nuclear Generating Station in Ogle County

Average annual wind power distribution for Illinois, 50 m height above ground (2009)

The Illinois State Capitol in Springfield

Vandalia State House State Historic Site in Vandalia

The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago

Magnolia Manor is a Victorian period historic house museum in Cairo.

Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield

A Railway Post Office preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union

Standard license plate introduced in 2017

Illinois license plate design used throughout the 1980s and 1990s, displaying the Land of Lincoln slogan that has been featured on the state's plates since 1954

Chicago is its largest city, and the state's capital is Springfield; other major metropolitan areas include Metro East (of Greater St. Louis), Peoria and Rockford.

Alton, Illinois

City on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, United States, about 18 mi north of St. Louis, Missouri.

The Great River Road in Illinois north of Alton, looking south.

The massive Lovejoy monument, dedicated to free speech and the abolition of slavery

The cliffside reproduction of the American Indian mural, the Piasa Bird

It is a part of the River Bend area in the Metro-East region of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area.

Granite City, Illinois

City in Madison County, Illinois, United States, within the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area.

Port Harbor Railroad crew members posing on unit #3086, an SD40-2 diesel electric locomotive built by the Electro Motive Division of General Motors.

The population was 27,549 at the 2020 census, making it the third-largest city in the Metro East and Southern Illinois regions, behind Belleville and O'Fallon.

Belleville, Illinois

City and the county seat of St. Clair County, Illinois, coterminous with the now defunct Belleville Township.

Bird's Eye View of Belleville, Illinois in 1867

Belleville around the turn of the 20th century.

1882 Harrison Machine Works tractor, made in Belleville.

Roman Catholic Cathedral of Saint Peter, Belleville

Belleville is the eighth-most populated city in the state outside the Chicago metropolitan area, and the most-populated city in southern Illinois and in the Metro-East region of the St. Louis Metropolitan Area.