Does St. Louis have a beach? (Kansas City, Rolla: dangerous, safe, bars)

[I_Love_Roadtrips_22M]

I've only been through st louis once, and i remember seeing the Mississippi river and it looked MUCH bigger than i thought it was. i'm just curious, does the city of St Louis have a beach near the river?
and if it doesn't why not?

[James Bond 007]

Don't know about St Louis, but the Missouri River goes through Kansas City, and there is a park along the river which lots of people go to, and let's just say, you probably wouldn't want to go in there anyway. Current is strong, and the water is brown.

Oddly though, that's where my water comes from. In fact I'm drinking a glass of it right now!

I'd suspect the Mississippi River is the same as the Missouri, but moreso.

[aliasfinn]

We did have a son of a beach, but he left with the football team.

[I_Love_Roadtrips_22M]

Originally Posted by aliasfinn

We did have a son of a beach, but he left with the football team.

huh?? O_o

[mjtinmemphis]

There is no beach along the Mississippi River.

[I_Love_Roadtrips_22M]

Originally Posted by mjtinmemphis

There is no beach along the Mississippi River.

why not?

[glamatomic]

Originally Posted by I_Love_Roadtrips_22M

why not?

I've been trying to understand why the Mississippi and it's banks are so underutilized for recreation since I moved here the first time over a decade ago.

I think there are two major reasons for it:

1) It is still very much a "working" river. There is still a fair amount of barge traffic, and industries/factories along the river in the immediate STL surrounds. This makes for a pretty dirty waterway.

2) The Mississippi in STL floods- if a "beach" was created, it likely wouldn't be nice for very long with the frequency of flooding.

ETA: Back in the 1970s there were plans for a Marina, Beach and water recreation facilities along River Des Peres in St. Louis. Obviously that fell through.

[MoNative34]

The banks are too steep.

There's current.

The water's muddy.

Above the Missouri River, it's much less muddy. Alton pool has marinas. There's also sandbars when the river is low that people use. They are like a giant beach.

[STL74]

Fugitive Beach in Rolla is the closest you will get (never been there though, not my kind of thing). No, we don't have a beach. I'm not a beach person though, a long weekend per year gives me my fill. The Mississippi in the St. Louis area is also not going to be particularly safe to actually go into...current is too strong, it's too muddy, still a working river. You will see more boating up closer to Alton though.

[BerkeleyKid]

My first thought was Times Beach.
The word 'Beach' is not really in the StL vocabulary. The Mighty Mississippi River is too swift and dangerous for that sort of thing.