Wrecking balls, chain-linked fences and brick-and-mortar rubble blocked off entire city blocks. Hollowed-out, decrepit warehouses, boarded up storefronts and ghost town shopping malls sat vacant and lifeless.

This was a depressing vision of life imitating art.

Nearly 30 years ago, Hollywood filmmakers used downtown St. Louis to create the post-Apocalyptic street scenes for John Carpenter's "Escape from New York." Some of the crumbling facades and neglected landmark buildings were in such disrepair, Carpenter's set designers didn't bother to add any Hollywood magic to the dismal decay.

Did you know:

• The cocktails, Planter's Punch and Tom Collins, were invented at a St. Louis hotel, the Planter's House
• The custom of placing chocolates on hotel pillows begins here when the actor Cary Grant stayed at the Mayfair and used chocolate to woo a woman friend
• The first Jewish congregation west of the Mississippi was founded here as was the first library west of the Mississippi
• The Missouri Botanical Garden is among the top three botanical gardens in the world
• The first ironclad boat was built by James Buchanan Eads in the Port of St. Louis. Eads also invented the diving bell to salvage steamboat wrecks from the Mississippi River and built the first bridge using steel truss construction - the 1874 Eads Bridge
• St. Louis offers more free, major visitor attractions than anyplace outside of the nation's capital, including the Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis Zoo, Cahokia Mounds, Museum of Westward Expansion, St. Louis Science Center, Missouri History Museum, Anheuser-Busch Brewery, Grant's Farm and more
• The first kindergarten in the U.S. was founded in St. Louis by Susan Blow
• Peanut Butter was invented here
• St. Louis was the first American city to host the Olympic Games (1904)
• The Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space capsules were built in St. Louis by McDonnell Douglas - now Boeing
• The world's first skyscaper - Louis Sullivan's Wainwright Building - was built in St. Louis
• Charles Lindbergh flew mail routes into St. Louis and named his plane "Spirit of St. Louis" to thank the businessmen who provided financial backing for his solo Atlantic flight in 1927
• The nation's first interstate highway was constructed here
• The Gateway Arch - at 630 feet - is the nation's tallest man-made monument
• The Mississippi River runs 2,350 miles from Lake Itasca in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. The word "Mississippi" comes from the Anishinabe people (Ojibwe Indians). They called the river "Messipi" which means "Big River"
• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintains a navigation channel nine feet deep in the center of the river
• St. Louis was the site of the demonic possession incident that inspired the book, and later the movie, "The Exorcist"
• The ice cream cone and iced tea were both invented at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis
• St. Louis was once the largest shoe-manufacturing center in the world -- home of Buster Brown and other famous brands
• The largest collection of mosaic art in the world graces the walls and ceilings at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis in the Central West End neighborhood
• St. Louis is home to the oldest institution of higher learning west of the Mississippi River - Saint Louis University
• Hawken Rifles and Murphy wagons, used by the western pioneers, were made in St. Louis
• The soft drink Dr Pepper was introduced at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis and 7-Up also was invented in St. Louis
• The first lung cancer operation was performed in St. Louis
• St. Louisans consume more barbecue sauce per capita than any other city in America
• I am 230 years old
• Delmar Boulevard was named after the states Delaware and Maryland
• Berlin Avenue was changed to Pershing Avenue during World War I due to anti-german sentinent
• Kindergarten was started first in St. Louis and later spread to the rest of the country

Check out Built St. Louis for more sexy photos of me.

Anyone living in, from, or connected to STL in any way. By the way, what high school did you go to?