St. Louis is a thriving city with a population of over 2.7 million people in the St. Louis metropolitan area, of which approximately 375,000 live within the city limits.  Founded by French fur traders in 1764, St. Louis was a French and Spanish settlement built at a strategically important spot near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. The founders named the city for Louis IX, the Crusader King of France. St. Louis is known as the Gateway to the West, and as the starting point for the Lewis and Clark Expedition, comissioned to chart the Louisiana Territory.  St. Louis is also known for the 1904 World’s Fair, and of course, the famous St. Louis Arch.