United States · Missouri · St. Louis
Riverview, St. Louis — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Riverview is the far northern tip of St. Louis, a river panhandle on Riverview Drive where the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge crosses to Illinois.
About Riverview
Where to stay in Riverview
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Riverview Drive has no front desk. The panhandle was drawn around a waterworks rather than a main street, so the ground between Chain of Rocks Road and the Interstate 270 crossing runs to pumping works, levee scrub, and a scattering of bluff-top houses above the Mississippi River. Rooms sit south past Baden, closer to downtown.
Come here for the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge if you want a river crossing on foot, then drive back south to your room.
About Riverview
What are the main landmarks in Riverview?
The Old Chain of Rocks Bridge crosses to Illinois from the foot of Chain of Rocks Road, and it takes a sharp bend in mid-channel because the bedrock there could not carry a straight line and a water intake stood in the way. Route 66 once ran across it. Two intake towers stand mid-river below the span, drawing raw water for the Chain of Rocks Water Treatment Plant on the Missouri bank.
Cars stopped crossing in 1970. Walkers and cyclists have the deck.
What is the history of Riverview?
The waterworks drew this panhandle. When the city split from St. Louis County in 1876, the boundary was pulled north into a thin panhandle along the river so that the waterworks would sit inside city limits and far enough upriver to draw clean water. Ground broke in 1887, the plant opened in 1894, and a filter works followed in 1915.
Chain of Rocks Amusement Park drew school picnics off Lookaway Drive from 1927 until 1978. Housing covers its ground now.
Where is Riverview?
The Mississippi River closes Riverview on the east, Chain of Rocks Road on the south, and the county line on the west, with Interstate 270 crossing near the top.
More areas in St. Louis
Updated September 2026