St. Louis Union Station used to be the biggest and busiest train terminal in the planet. It opened to the public in September 1, 1894. At the peak of its run, it has served up to 100,000 passengers daily. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 2008, thanks to being an excellent exemplification of a High Victorian architectural design.

The amount of passengers declined during the 50s and 60s, which made the management of the whole station quite costly. This fact paved the way for the conversion of the terminal in the 1980s into a leisure complex complete with a shopping center and a luxury hotel that has 539 rooms, restaurants, and a food court. The initial renovations for the St. Louis Station amounted to $150 million in total, and later improvements were started in 2010.