St. Louis on Acid--Victorian West Virginia

[JivecitySTL]

I've always had a soft spot for Wheeling. What a cool town. Whenever I'm driving from STL to NYC (which is often), Wheeling marks the threshold between the Midwest and the east. You cross that bridge into Wheeling and you are in a different region entirely.

And yes-- that red-brick architecture looks so much like STL!!!

Metro Matt-- check out one of my St. Louis threads and you'll see plenty of similarities in architectural style.

[LouisianaRush]

Very beautiful!

[ColDayMan]

Originally Posted by JivecitySTL

I've always had a soft spot for Wheeling. What a cool town. Whenever I'm driving from STL to NYC (which is often), Wheeling marks the threshold between the Midwest and the east. You cross that bridge into Wheeling and you are in a different region entirely.

Sheeeiiiiit! Wheeling, St. Clairsville, Steubenville, Moundsville, Cambridge, it's all the same Vocelli's Pizza! The true line of "you're out of the Midwest" is when you are about 10 miles west of Zanesville on I-70 and you're in a different region entirely until the Allegheny Tunnel. It's amazing to see the flat farmlands of Licking County and the Appalachian hills/forests/towns of Muskingham.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by ColDayMan

Sheeeiiiiit! Wheeling, St. Clairsville, Steubenville, Moundsville, Cambridge, it's all the same Vocelli's Pizza! The true line of "you're out of the Midwest" is when you are about 10 miles west of Zanesville on I-70 and you're in a different region entirely until the Allegheny Tunnel. It's amazing to see the flat farmlands of Licking County and the Appalachian hills/forests/towns of Muskingham.

I'm thinking I need a roadtrip to straighten this all out! Looks kind of like I-44 in southwest St. Louis County, which I consider midwestern even though there are no crops and where there are slow lanes for trucks.

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Looks like a little gem there...thanks.

[beyondtheforest]

Wheeling is one of my favorite places. The architecture in Wheeling is second to none.

[Tiger Beer]

Yeah, too bad more cities didn't have that look.

Actually there are some that do, it seems WV cities do sometimes, PA cities do sometimes (Pittsburgh in particular), MD cities do sometimes (especially Hagerstown and Frederick). Apparently from this city, I just learned that St. Louis does as well. I believe Cincinnati Ohio is another one on that list as well.

[sirrob]

hmmmm.....

[photoLith]

Why is Wheeling dying, I just looked up the population trends and even since 2000, the population has gone down from 32,000 - 2850 or so. I saw at its peak, it had a little over 60,000. It must have been a mining town since the population started to die off after the 40s. Really is a shame, Wheeling has some incredible architecture, hopefully in the near future before too much is lost or deemed unfixable something happens to bring people back there. But, when you think of WV, you dont exactly think of a state that holds any sort of bright future.

[ColDayMan]

Wheeling was never a mining town (that's further down I-79 or I-77) but an iron town. It was known as "Nail City" as somebody had to produce the little bastards! The power plants in the area also power Columbus via AEP.

And why is Wheeling dying? Jobs. They are all either moving to Columbus or Pittsburgh.

[Centropolis]

I dig how weird the location of West Virginia is.

[Jarrod]

Great pics! I'd like to see more

[Xing]

Originally Posted by Metro Matt

The title of the thread is "St Louis on Acid"?

Not sure I quite get it or see the relativity.

I do!

Great thread!