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is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States, part of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. At the 2000 census, the population was 31,301, with a total of about 67,000 in the immediate area. Officially founded in 1896, Granite City was named by the Niedringhaus brothers who established it as a steel making company town for the manufacture of kitchen utensils made to look like granite. Granite City is often simply called "Granite."
Granite City is located at (38.717849, -90.129529), adjacent to the Chain of Rocks Canal on the Upper Mississippi River, bordering Horseshoe Lake on its southeastern side. The city sits in the American Bottom, a wide, flat and fertile plain. Although at risk during the Great Flood of 1993, the city never flooded and is protected by a series of levees along both the Mississippi River and Chain of Rocks Canal.
Granite City is located within a few miles of five interstate highways. Interstate 270 passes through the northern edge of the city and Interstates 255, 70, 55, and 64 all pass just to the south and east of the city.
Route 3 is a major thoroughfare along the western edge of the city and provides quick access to downtown St. Louis across the recently renovated McKinley Bridge.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 17.2 square miles (44.5 km²), of which, 16.7 square miles (43.2 km²) of it is land and 0.5 square miles (1.3 km²) of it (2.85%) is water.