East St. Louis, Ill

East St. Louis, Illinois, sits on the east bank of the Mississippi opposite downtown St. Louis. Incorporated in 1861, it grew into a major rail, stockyard, and industrial center - aluminum, meatpacking, and chemicals - and reached about 82,000 residents by 1950. Deindustrialization, disinvestment, and population loss over the following decades emptied large parts of the city; by 2020 its population had fallen below 18,000. Much of its early-twentieth-century commercial core, including the Spivey Building - its only high-rise - survives as vacant or ruined fabric. The city anchors the Metro East and is part of the wider St. Louis region.