最后，66号公路在密苏里州圣路易斯跨过密西西比河。这里就是西部。我们没有在该市久留，该市由法国人于1764年建立，以路易九世（1214-1270）命名。相反，我们在密苏里-阿肯色州边境的欧扎克山脉中迷失了方向。然而圣路易斯曾有过辉煌时刻。它位于密西西比河与密苏里河的汇流处，在20世纪初是通往美国西部的门户。
Finally, Route 66 crosses the Mississippi at Saint Louis, Missouri. This is the West. We didn't linger in the city, founded by the French in 1764 and named for King Louis IX (1214-1270). Instead, we lost ourselves in the Ozark Mountains on the Missouri-Arkansas border. Yet St. Louis had its moment of glory. Located at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, it was, at the turn of the 20th century, the gateway to the American West.
其繁荣程度之高，使其于1904年同时举办了奥运会和世界博览会。尽管德国酿酒巨头安海斯-布希也总部设于此，但该城市陷入了不可逆转的衰退，50年间人口减少了一半。
Its prosperity was such that in 1904 it hosted both the Olympic Games and the World's Fair. Although it is also home to the German brewing giant Anheuser-Busch, the city fell into irreversible decline, losing half its population over 50 years.
连接纽约和加利福尼亚的航班飞越这座被遗忘的城市，俯瞰其破败的市中心。2014年，该市因一名警察在郊区弗格森枪杀非裔青年迈克尔·布朗而登上头条，助推了“黑人的命也是命”运动。除此之外，它以1960年代建成的宏伟拱门闻名，我们乘坐一列小型倾斜电梯列车登上了拱顶。从那里，我们眺望着密苏里州阴郁的平原。
Planes connecting New York and California fly over the forgotten city, with its run-down downtown. It made headlines in 2014, when a police officer killed the young African-American Michael Brown in Ferguson, in the city's suburbs, amplifying the Black Lives Matter movement. Aside from that, it is known for its magnificent arch, built in the 1960s, whose summit we reached by a small, inclined elevator train. From there, we gazed out over the bleak plains of Missouri.
那时，这里是狂野西部，是亡命之徒杰西·詹姆斯（1847-1882）的领地，传说他曾藏身于欧扎克山脉的洞穴中。这个偏远地区仍保留着一些那样的隔绝感。它依然是那些寻求远离尘世、体验美国珍视的边疆文化、并选择“回归土地”者的避风港。
Back then, it was the Wild West, the land of the outlaw Jesse James (1847-1882), who, legend says, once hid in the caves of the Ozarks. This remote region still retains some of that isolation. It has remained a haven for those seeking to withdraw from the world, to experience the frontier culture so dear to America, and who choose a "return to the land."