This City, As Seen Through Google Maps, is The Creepiest Place Ever.

The city of East St. Louis, Illinois, hasn’t had it easy for a very long time now. Since the 1950′s, this once-bustling metropolis has been in heavy decline. The result is that, nowadays, huge swaths of the city are abandoned and decaying.

Using Google Maps to explore East St. Louis, it looks more like the setting for a post-apocalyptic thriller movie than a still functioning city. 

East St. Louis had its prime years in the late 1800′s and early 1900′s an industrial hub of the midwest.

The railroad industry was a big driver of the city’s growth.

Sadly the city suffered during the second half of the 1900′s as the railroad industry restructered.

This led to massive layoffs, and general economic decline.

The result was the flight of residents who could afford to leave the city.

The exodus of middle class residents out of East St. Louis started in the 1950′s but continued on through the 60′s, 70′s, and 80′s.

To put that in perspective, in 1950 East St. Louis was the fourth largest city in Illinois with a population of 82,366.

The 2010 Census put the population of East St. Louis at just 27,006.

As you might imagine, this population deflation has been disastrous for the city.

And if all of that wasn’t bad enough, East St. Louis has the highest crime rate in the country.

The murder rate in East St. Louis is actually higher than the entire country of Honduras. That’s probably one of the most shocking statistics I’ve ever seen.

It’s considered to be one of America’s most dangerous cities.

These scenes are just surreal. I keep half expecting to see zombies walking around these abandoned buildings.

A massive urban fire in 1976 devestated huge swaths of the city.

These burned out area of the city were actually used to film some of the scenes from the 1981 movie “Escape From New York.”

While parts of East St. Louis have experienced an economic revival in recent years, most of the city is still blighted by sights like these.

I can definitively say that no where on my list of places to visit is the city of East St. Louis. Maybe they can start luring producers of zombie films to their blighted areas with tax incentives?

This City, As Seen Through Google Maps, is The Creepiest Place Ever.