In 1807, answering the needs of mountain men passing through St. Louis on their way to the frontier, Jacob Hawken and his brother Sam developed, handcrafted and sold a new rifle, known as the Hawken Rifle, which is shorter, more powerful and more reliable than its predecessors.  The Hawken Rifle was known and valued for its accuracy and extreme reliablility.

James B. Eads, an engineer from the east, designed and oversaw the construction of the first bridge crossing the Mississippi River beginning in 1867.  St. Louis's Eads Bridge was the first bridge ever built with cantilevered steel, using a compression belt with compressed air for underwater construction and a river channeling system developed as the project progressed, which changed the way bridges are built.  Some of these methods are still in use.

1888 saw the end of an arduous process as William Burroughs patented the first adding machine.  Some say this was the first computer.  It was definitely the first step in a continuous stream of technological innovation which continues unbroken.

The prototype of the modern industrial complex and office park is Cupples Station.  Built in downtown St. Louis in 1894 by Samuel Cupples, Asa Wallace and Robert Brookings, the complex was comprised of 22 warehouses connected underground by a series of tunnels with tracks.  It was connected to the Mississippi River by a rail tunnel that ran under downtown and was situated next to the cross-country railroad tacks.  The tunnel is currently used by the MetroLink Mass Transit System as part of daily service downtown.

Before 1898, schools in the United States were dark, cold, many storied buildings with lavatories only in the lowest level.  A St. Louis architect named William Ittner changed that.  As Chief Architect of the St. Louis City Schools from 1898-1915, Ittner oversaw the design and construction of over 50 school  buildings which for the first time featured lavatories on all levels, adequate lighting, ventilation, fireproofing, centralized heat, auditoriums, and special rooms for kindergarten.

To aid catching a baseball, former Cardinals pitcher Bill Doak in 1919 came up with the idea of separating the thumb from the index finger of a baseball glove and filling the gap with leather lacing, thus creating a deep pocket and the modern baseball glove.  The glove was manufactured by Rawlings, now in nearby Fenton, Missouri, giving Rawlings the first of their multiple baseball glove innovations of the last 78 years.

Inventing the car-side serving tray was an achievement.  Developing the marketing tool to sell the invention changed the culture.  In 1930, Louie McGinley opened the Parkmoor to market his invention, the car-side serving tray.  It was the first drive-in restaurant with the first car hops using the new invention, the car-side serving tray.  Three innovations all in one.

During World War II, the U.S. Navy saw the need for a jet fighter.  McDonnell Aircraft Company answered the call in 1943 with the first of the Navy's jet fighters, the F-4 Phantom.  Three years later, the Phantom was the first jet fighter to operate from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier.

Peabody Energy was ahead of the times when the company launched "Operation Green Earth," the nation's first land reclamation project launched by a mining company.  Since 1954, every mining project executed by Peabody  begins with  a plan of how to return the land to usefulness once the project is complete.

In 1985, the Greater St. Louis Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America expanded on multiple Eagle Scout projects within the St. Louis Region when "Scouting for Food" was launched with the help of local businesses and the United Way.  Their idea - distribute bags to the local population, ask that the residents fill the bags with non-perishable food items and the scouts would retrieve the filled bags a week later.  The result - hundreds of thousands of cans of food for local food pantries.  The Boy Scouts of America took "Scouting for Food" nationwide in 1988, thus creating one of the largest single day volunteer efforts ever.

Mother and daughter team, Betty Rozier and Lisa Vallino, both nurses, grew weary of watching patients suffer when IV needles would slip.  They developed the Intravenious Catheter Shield or IV House now a standard used in hospitals.  Rozier and Vallino were awarded a patent for the IV House in 1993.