President Roosevelt approved of the idea to create a monument to Thomas Jefferson on the St. Louis riverfront back in 1935 when the voters in St. Louis passed a bond measure to fund the local costs. The land was cleared, and a design contest was held in 1946-47 but the Korean War held up progress until construction finally began in 1963. It cost $13 million to build, or adjusted for inflation, $ 90 million today!
From the picture on the right below, you can see the millions of dollars being spent downtown during the early 1960s on construction projects for the stadium, the interstate, and the Arch.
One plan for redevelopment of the area included a Walt Disney theme park on the banks of the Mississippi River. It was one of a handful of projects that Disney was considering in the early 1960s as a follow up to the success of Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Negotiations and site plans progressed until the project stalled over funding the project as Disney wanted full control over the site as well as construction funds to build it.
Meanwhile, Disney forged partnerships with with corporate backers to develop new theme park ideas at the 1964 World's Fair in New York. Only months later, the company began buying property options for land in Florida to develop their biggest project yet, Walt Disney World.
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