When it comes to the country with the most applications to host the Olympics in the world today, it is naturally the United States, counting the Los Angeles Olympics to be held in 2028, which will be the fifth time that the United States has hosted the Summer Olympics.
So which city in the United States hosted the first Summer Olympics? Many people don't know that it is the city of St. Louis, the second largest city in Missouri. Geographically, the city is located almost in the geometric center of the United States, hence the nickname "Wuhan of the United States".
Many American writers have described the character of the St. Louis as having the drive and courage of the Northerners, the culture and technology of the Easterners, the foresight of the Westerners, and the hospitality of the Southerners, indicating that the St. Louis people have close ties with all parts of the United States.
Chinese who have been to St. Louis like to compare it to Wuhan, a large city in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and it makes sense. St. Louis is located in the heart of the United States, right in the middle reaches of the Mississippi River. And it's where the river meets its largest tributary, the Missouri River. For a long time, this was the center of water transportation.
Mark Twain, a sailor in the area, often heard the surveyors shouting Mark Twain, which means 12 feet, the depth at which a ship can safely pass through. Later, the writer adopted the pen name "Mark Twain", and his original name was forgotten.
Today, St. Louis is one of the top three inland ports in the United States, with waterways connecting to 20 states. There are nearly 100 modern wharves on both sides of the Mississippi River, which can load and unload five to six hundred barges per day, with an annual throughput of 50 million tons of petroleum products, mineral sands, coal, building materials and grains.
Four interstate highways and more than a dozen main railroad lines converge in St. Louis, making it the second-largest rail hub in the country after Chicago. Although rail passenger traffic is insignificant, freight traffic is still considerable, and many industrial goods and raw materials are transferred through this hub to the east, west, north and south stations of the country.
St. Louis is not only a transportation hub, but it also has a strong economy. It is one of the most important industrial centers in the United States, with 3,000 factories in the metropolitan area. Diversification, specialization and modernization are the most striking features of the city's industry.
The first thing to mention is the aerospace industry, which has a long history here, when the famous pilot Lin Bai piloted the "Spirit of St. Louis" aircraft made its first non-stop flight across the Atlantic. Many U.S. fighter jets, such as the F-4 Phantom, F-15 Hawk and F-18 Hornet, come from the city's factories. The Mercury spacecraft, which first sent Americans into space, was also a product of this place.
The headquarters of the famous McDonnell Douglas Company were located here, and travelers who flew on the large passenger plane DC-10 knew its name. In 1996, the company merged with Boeing Aircraft Company, and the overall strength was stronger. General Dynamics, which produces military supplies such as Tomahawk cruise missiles, is also based in the city.
St. Louis has the second-largest auto manufacturing industry in the United States after Detroit. The three major U.S. automobile companies all have large factories in the area. The city also has a shipbuilding industry, specializing in the production of river pushers. This kind of boat is a bit special in that instead of dragging barges in front, it pushes rows of linked barges forward from behind. This method is said to save energy and is highly efficient. It is common to see a flotilla of pushers on the Mississippi River.
The city's electrical and instrumentation industry and chemical industry are quite developed, and the headquarters of Emerson Electric Group, which is on the list of Fortune 500 companies, is located here, and the young turnover is more than 20 billion US dollars. In addition, the company's headquarters are also located here for the multinational agricultural company Monsanto and the American Budweiser beer. These are well-known and well-known enterprises, which shows the economic strength and attractiveness of St. Louis City.
According to the data, the entire St. Louis metropolitan area has a population of 2.85 million, making it the 18th largest urban area in the United States. Its total GDP is as high as 240 billion US dollars, such an economic volume in China, and the economic strength of Nanjing and Tianjin is almost the same, and it can enter the top 15 cities in China, which can be regarded as relatively powerful.