By Tim O’Neil, St. Louis Post-Dispatch; September 1, 2019
ST. LOUIS • On Sept. 1, 1894, newspapers carried detailed instructions for carriages approaching 18th and Market streets. No one would get through without a pass.
The occasion was the grand opening of Union Station, the monument to St. Louis’ sense of itself as an industrial powerhouse and national crossroads. Organizers printed 13,000 invitations and ran out and printed more. About 20,000 men and women, many in tails and gowns, jammed the Grand Hall and strutted the 606-foot-long midway to the tracks.