Kansas City Apartment Reviews

Read Kansas City apartment reviews. Renters share their first hand experiences from living in apartments you want to know about. These apartment reviews help you choose wisely before you rent.

Kansas City Information

Vents in the City of Kansas area climaxed Aug. 14, 1863, when a building at 14th and Grand being used by the Union army as a temporary jail collapsed, killing some women who were related to William Quantrill's pro-slavery raiders. Quantrill retaliated seven days later with his infamous attack on Lawrence, Kan., in which 150 persons were killed and Lawrence was virtually destroyed.

The City of Kansas area got a strong taste of the Civil War during the Battle of Westport Oct. 21-23, 1864, said to be the largest and most decisive Union-Confederate clash in Missouri. It was at Westport that the Union army routed the Confederates and broke their power as an army in this area.

The Influence of Railroads After the war, Leavenworth, Kan., the City of Kansas and St. Joseph, Mo., were competitors for trade dominance in the area. The City of Kansas won the competition, thanks to passage of a bill in Congress providing for construction of the Hannibal Bridge across the Missouri River at Broadway Avenue.

ntil the 1,371-foot span opened July 3, 1869, there were no bridges across the river for its entire length. The railroads ended at the unincorporated town of Harlem on the river's north bank.

In 1917 the bridge was replaced by a new one a few feet west that had a double deck -- one for trains and the other for motor vehicles. When the present Broadway Bridge opened Sept. 9, 1956, the Hannibal's motor vehicle deck was closed and later removed. The rail deck is still used.

The railroads helped make possible one of Kansas City's biggest early-day industries: cattle. From beginnings not long after the Civil War, the city became one of the world's major cattle markets. The Kansas City stockyard was founded in 1870, and the Kansas City Livestock Exchange there, in its heyday early in the 20th century, was the largest building in the world devoted exclusively to livestock interests.