KANSAS CITY, a city and port of entry of Jackson county, Missouri, U.S.A., the second in size and importance in the state, situated at the confluence of the Missouri and Kansas rivers, adjoining Kansas City, Kansas, and 235 m. W. by N. of St Louis. Pop. (1890), 132,716; (1900), 163,752, of whom 18,410 were foreign born (German, 4816; Irish, 3507; Swedish, 1869; English, 1863; English-Canadian, 1369; Italian, 1034), and 17,567 were negroes; (1910 census) 248,381. Kansas City, the gateway to the South-west, is one of the leading railway centres of the United States. It is served by the Union Pacific, the Missouri Pacific, the 'Frisco System, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, the Chicago Great Western, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St Paul, the Chicago & Alton, the Wabash, the Kansas City Southern, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, the Leavenworth, Kansas & Western, the Kansas City, Mexico & Orient, the St Louis, Kansas City & Colorado, the Quincy, Omaha & Kansas City, and the St Joseph & Grand Island railways, and by steamboat lines to numerous river ports. The present retail, office, and wholesale sections were once high bluffs and deep ravines, but through and across these well graded streets were constructed. South and west of this highland, along the Kansas river, is a low, level tract occupied chiefly by railway yards, stock yards, wholesale houses and manufacturing establishments; north and east of the highland is a flat section, the Missouri River bottoms, occupied largely by manufactories, railway yards, grain elevators and homes of employes. Much high and dry "made" land has been reclaimed from the river flood-plain. Two great railway bridges across the Missouri, many smaller bridges across the Kansas, and a great inter-state toll viaduct extending from bluff to bluff across the valley of the latter river, lie within the metropolitan area of the two cities. The streets of the Missouri city are generally wide and excellently paved. The city-hall (1890-1893), the courthouse (1888-1892), and the Federal Building (1892-1900) are the most imposing of the public buildings. A convention hall, 314 ft. long and 198 ft. wide, with a seating capacity of about 15,000, is covered by a steel-frame roof without a column for its support; the exterior of the walls is cut stone and brick. The building was erected within three months, to replace one destroyed by fire, for the National Democratic Convention which met here on the 4th of July 1900. The Public Library with walls of white limestone and Texas granite, contained (1908) 95,000 volumes. The Congregational, the Calvary Baptist, the Second Presbyterian, the Independence Avenue Christian, the Independence Avenue Methodist, and the Second Christian Science churches are the finest church buildings. The board of trade building, the building of the _Star_ newspaper, and several large office