St. Louis is having a moment as Route 66 marks its 100th birthday this week, with the Gateway Arch, a 97-year-old frozen custard stand, and a sprawling transportation museum all reporting a noticeable uptick in visitors from around the globe. The Mother Road, which stretched from Chicago to Santa Monica and once cut straight through downtown St. Louis, is pulling international travelers to the city’s most iconic stops even without a single confirmed visitor count yet on the books.
At 630 feet tall, the Gateway Arch is as tall as it is wide and remains the nation’s tallest man-made monument, according to FOX 2. The site has carried several names over the decades: it was originally designated the Jefferson National Memorial Expansion before being renamed Gateway Arch National Park in recent years and formally folded into the national park system. For Sherry Stennis, an East St. Louisan, the Arch grounds have become something closer to a sanctuary than a tourist stop. “I sit here, and this is where I meditate,” she said, adding that she comes to take in the Arch alongside the sky and clouds above it.
Just a few miles away, Ted Drewes Frozen Custard has been serving up its signature concretes since 1929, and the family-owned stand’s Chippewa Street location became its prime spot as Route 66 crowds grew and the route itself shifted over the years, per the same FOX 2 report. The business’s own site notes the Chippewa shop sits on historic Route 66 and has scooped custard there since 1941, now marking its 97th season. Travelers passing through this time of year can also catch the stand selling Christmas trees and holiday greenery, a tradition that kicks off the day after Thanksgiving.
A Museum Exhibit Built for the Centennial
Across town, the National Museum of Transportation is also seeing a lot of visitors from around the world this year, the station’s report notes. Spread across a 42-acre property displaying planes, trains, boats, and automobiles, the museum opened a new exhibit this year called “Roads, River, Rooms, and Reels” specifically to honor the Mother Road’s milestone. According to the National Museum of Transportation, the show was slated to open to the public on March 14, 2026…