Kansas City is a thriving cultural and economic center at the heart of the United States. The largest city in Missouri, Kansas City is the center of a bi-state Metropolitan Statistical Area composed of 15 counties: Platte, Clinton, Caldwell, Clay, Ray, Jackson, Lafayette, Cass, and Bates counties in Missouri and Leavenworth, Wyandotte, Johnson, Franklin, Miami, and Linn counties in Kansas. First a trading post and river port settlement, the city developed after the Civil War as a link in the intercontinental railroad network, which led to prosperous grain, livestock, and meat-packing industries. During the twentieth century Kansas City garnered a national reputation for its distinctive architecture, boulevard system, and innovations in urban redevelopment. This redevelopment has continued into the twenty-first century, prompting Expansion Management magazine to name Kansas City the third "hottest city" in the United States for business expansion (2005).