Mobile, Alabama's oldest and third largest city, is also the state's only seaport, serving as a major industrial, shipping, and shipbuilding center. Located on the Mobile River at the head of the Gulf of Mexico's Mobile Bay, it was an important maritime site during the Civil War and both world wars. The area that is now Mobile was France's first Gulf Coast settlement, and except for St. Augustine, Florida, it is the oldest Latin town east of Mexico. Also settled by Spanish and British populations during its colorful early years, Mobile has preserved its historic sites and architecture, as well as its Creole culture and traditions, and so retains much of the rich heritage of the American South while remaining substantially different from inland communities. Money magazine consistently rates Mobile in the top 100 best metropolitan areas in which to live in the United States. In the 1990s the city underwent a $168 million revitalization of its waterfront and downtown areas. Today's Mobile, while steeped in the heritage of a genuinely Southern past, continues to move forward as a truly modern city.